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Title: Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading Author: George Park Fisher Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8896] Most recently updated: January 2, 2021 Language: English Credits: Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Jim OConnor and Distributed Proofreaders *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, DESIGNED AS A TEXT-BOOK AND FOR PRIVATE READING *** Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Jim OConnor and Distributed Proofreaders Transcriber's Comment In the original text, the author sought, "by the use of different sorts of type, ... to introduced a considerable amount of detail without breaking the main current of the narrative, or making it too long". In the text below, paragraphs in the smallest type have been indented. OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading By George Park Fisher, D.D., LL.D. Professor in Yale University Inscribed by the author as a token of love and thankfulness to his daughter C. R. F. PREFACE. In writing this work I have endeavored to provide a text-book suited to more advanced pupils. My idea of such a work was, that it should present the essential facts of history in due order, and in conformity to the best and latest researches; that it should point out clearly the connection of events and of successive eras with one another; that through the interest awakened by the natural, unforced view gained of this unity of history, and by such illustrative incidents as the brevity of the narrative would allow to be wrought into it, the dryness of a mere summary should be, as far as possible, relieved; and that, finally, being a book intended for pupils and readers of all classes, it should be free from sectarian partiality, and should limit itself to well-established judgments and conclusions on all matters subject to party contention. Respecting one of the points just referred to, I can say that, in composing this work, I have myself been more than ever impressed with _the unity of history_, and affected by this great and deeply moving drama that is still advancing into a future that is hidden from view. I can not but hope that this feeling, spontaneous and vivid in my own mind, may communicate itself to the reader in his progress through these pages. The most interesting object in the study of history is, to quote Dr. Arnold's words, "that which most nearly touches the inner life of civilized man, namely, the vicissitudes of institutions, social, political, and religious." But, as the same scholar adds, "a knowledge of the external is needed before we arrive at that which is within. We want to get a sort of frame for our picture....And thus we want to know clearly the geographical boundaries of different countries, and their external revolutions. This leads us in the first instance to geography and military history, even if our ultimate object lies beyond." Something more is aimed at in the present work than the construction of this "frame," without which, to be sure, a student wanders about "vaguely, like an ignorant man in an ill-arranged museum." By the use of different sorts of type, it has been practicable to introduce a considerable amount of detail without breaking the main current of the narrative, or making it too long. By means of these additional passages, and by appending lists of books at the close of the several periods, the attempt has been made to aid younger students in carrying forward the study of history beyond the usual requirements of the class-room. I make no apology for the sketches presented of the history of science, literature, art, and of moral and material decline or improvement. Professor Seeley, in his interesting book on _The Expansion of England_, is disposed to confine history to the civil community, and to the part of human well-being which depends on that. "That a man in England," he tells us, "makes a scientific discovery or paints a picture, is not in itself an event in the history of England." But, of course, as this able writer himself remarks, "history may assume a larger or a narrower function;" and I am persuaded that to shut up history within so narrow bounds, is not expedient in a work designed in part to stimulate readers to wide and continued studies. One who has long been engaged in historical study and teaching, if he undertakes to prepare such a work as the present, has occasion to traverse certain periods where previous investigations have made him feel more or less at home. Elsewhere at least his course must be to collate authorities, follow such as he deems best entitled to credit, and, on points of uncertainty, satisfy himself by recurrence to the original sources of evidence. Among the numerous works from which I have derived assistance, the largest debt is due, especially in the ancient and mediæval periods, to Weber's _Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte_, which (in its nineteenth edition, 1883) contains 2328 large octavo pages of well-digested matter. Duruy's _Histoire du Moyen Age_ (eleventh edition, 1882), and also his _Histoire des Temps Modernes_ (ninth edition), have yielded to me important aid. From the writings of Mr. E. A. Freeman I have constantly derived instruction. In particular, I have made use of his _General Sketch of European History_ (which is published in this country, under the title, _Outlines of History_), and of his lucid, compact, and thorough _History of European Geography_. The other writings, however, of this able and learned historian, have been very helpful. Mr. Tillinghast's edition of Ploetz's _Epitome_ I have found to be a highly valuable storehouse of historical facts, and have frequently consulted it with advantage. The superior accuracy of George's _Genealogical Tables_ is the reason why I have freely availed myself of the aid afforded by them. Professor (now President) C. K. Adams's excellent _Manual of Historical Literature_, to which reference is repeatedly made in the following pages, has been of service in preparing the lists of works to be read or consulted. Those lists, it hardly need be said, aim at nothing like a complete bibliography. No doubt to each of them other valuable works might easily be added. As a rule, no mention is made of more technical or abstruse writings, collections of documents, and so forth. The titles of but few historical novels are given. Useful as the best of these are, works of this class are often inaccurate and misleading; so that a living master in historical authorship has said even of Walter Scott, who is so strong when he stands on Scottish soil, that in his Ivanhoe "there is a mistake in every line." With regard, however, to historical fiction, including poems, as well as novels and tales, the student will find in Mr. Justin Winsor's very learned and elaborate monograph (forming a distinct section of the catalogue of the Boston Public Library), the most full information up to the date of its publication. Most of the historical maps, to illustrate the text of the present work, have been engraved from drawings after Spruner, Putzger, Freeman, etc. Of the ancient maps, several have been adopted (in a revised form) from a General Atlas. That the maps contain more places than are referred to in the text, is not a disadvantage. I wish to express my obligation to a number of friends who have kindly lent me aid in the revisal of particular portions of the proof-sheets of this volume. My special thanks are due, on account of this service, to Professor Francis Brown of the Union Theological School; to Professors W. D. Whitney, Tracy Peck, T. D. Seymour, W. H. Brewer, and T. R. Lounsbury, of Yale College; to Mr. A. Van Name, librarian of Yale College; and to Mr. W. L. Kingsley, to whose historical knowledge and unfailing kindness I have, on previous occasions, been indebted for like assistance. To other friends besides those just named, I am indebted for information on points made familiar to them by their special studies. G. P. F. PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. The characteristics of this work are stated in the Preface to the First Edition, which may be read on page v and the next following pages of the present volume. The work has been subjected to a careful revision. The aim has been to make whatever amendments are called for by historical investigations in the interval since it was published. Besides corrections, brief statements have been woven here and there into the text. The revision has embraced the bibliography connected with the successive periods or chapters. Titles of books which are no longer of service have been erased. Titles of select recent publications, as well as of meritorious writings of a remoter past, have been inserted. In preparing this edition for the press I have not been without the advantage of aid from friends versed in historical studies. Professor Henry E. Bourne, of Western Reserve University, besides particular annotations, has prolonged the history so far as to include in its compass, in Chapter VII, the last decade of the nineteenth century and events as recent as the close of the South African War and the accession of President Roosevelt. Professor Charles C. Torrey, Ph.D., of Yale University, has placed in my hands notes of his own on Oriental History, a portion of history with which, as well as with the Semitic languages, he is conversant. It will not be for lack of painstaking if any part of the new edition fails, within the limits of its plan, to correspond to the present state of historical knowledge. G. P. F. Yale University, January, 1904. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY. _From the Beginning of Authentic History to the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes (A.D. 375)_ DIVISION I. ORIENTAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTION SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA. CHAPTER I.--CHINA CHAPTER II.--INDIA SECTION II. THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS. CHAPTER I.--EGYPT CHAPTER II.--ASSYRIA AND BABYLON CHAPTER III.--THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS CHAPTER IV.--THE HEBREWS CHAPTER V.--THE PERSIANS DIVISION II. EUROPE. INTRODUCTION SECTION I. GRECIAN HISTORY. INTRODUCTION PERIOD I. GREECE PRIOR TO THE PERSIAN WARS. CHAPTER I.--THE PREHISTORIC AGE CHAPTER II.--THE FORMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES PERIOD II. THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE. CHAPTER I.--THE PERSIAN WARS CHAPTER II.--THE ASCENDENCY OF ATHENS CHAPTER III.--THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR CHAPTER IV.--RELATIONS WITH PERSIA: THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN HEGEMONY PERIOD III. THE MACEDONIAN ERA. CHAPTER I.--PHILIP AND ALEXANDER CHAPTER II.--THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER SECTION II. ROMAN HISTORY. INTRODUCTION PERIOD I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS AND THE PATRICIANS (753-304 B.C.). CHAPTER I.--ROME UNDER THE KINGS (753-509 B.C.) CHAPTER II.--ROME UNDER THE PATRICIANS (509-304 B.C.) PERIOD II. TO THE UNION OF ITALY (304-264 B.C.). CHAPTER I.--CONQUEST OF THE LATINS AND ITALIANS (304-282 B.C.) CHAPTER II.--WAR WITH PYRRHUS AND UNION WITH ITALY (282-264 B.C.) PERIOD III. THE PUNIC WARS. To the Conquest of Carthage and of the Greek States (264-146 B.C.) CHAPTER I.--THE FIRST AND SECOND PUNIC WARS (264-202 B.C.) CHAPTER II.--CONQUEST OF MACEDONIA: THE THIRD PUNIC WAR: THE DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH (202-146 B.C.) PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF REVOLUTION AND OF THE CIVIL WARS (146-3l B.C.). CHAPTER I.--THE GRACCHI: THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR: MARIUS AND SULLA (146-78 B.C.) CHAPTER II.--POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRASSUS (78-53 B.C.) CHAPTER III.--POMPEIUS AND CAESAR: THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. PERIOD V. THE IMPERIAL MONARCHY. To the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes (375 A.D.) CHAPTER I.--THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CHAPTER II.--THE EMPERORS OF THE AUGUSTAN HOUSE CHAPTER III.--THE FLAVIANS AND THE ANTONINES CHAPTER IV.--THE EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS: THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY: THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY PART II. MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. _From the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes to the Fall of Constantinople (A.D. 375-1453)._ INTRODUCTION PERIOD I. TO THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK RULERS (A.D. 375-751). CHAPTER I.--CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE: THE TEUTONIC CONFEDERACIES CHAPTER II.--THE TEUTONIC MIGRATIONS AND KINGDOMS CHAPTER III.--THE EASTERN EMPIRE CHAPTER IV.--MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE ARABIC CONQUESTS PERIOD II. FROM THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK KINGS TO THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE (A.D. 751-962). CHAPTER I.--THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE (A.D. 814) CHAPTER II.--DISSOLUTION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE: RISE OF THE KINGDOMS OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY CHAPTER III.--INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN AND OTHERS: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM PERIOD III. FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 962-1270). CHAPTER I.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE EMPIRE: TO THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1096) CHAPTER II.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE CHURCH: TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1270) CHAPTER III.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: THE FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR RIVALSHIP (A.D. 1066-1217) CHAPTER IV.--RISE OF THE BURGHER CLASS: SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF THE CRUSADES PERIOD IV. FROM THE END OF THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (A.D. 1270-1453): THE DECLINE OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY: THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT AND OF MONARCHY. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALSHIP: THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1339-1453) CHAPTER II.--GERMANY: ITALY: SPAIN: THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: POLAND AND RUSSIA: HUNGARY: OTTOMAN TURKS: THE GREEK EMPIRE CHAPTER III.--THE COUNTRIES OF EASTERN ASIA PART III. MODERN HISTORY. _From the Fall of Constantinople_ (1453) _to the Present Time_ INTRODUCTION PERIOD I. FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE REFORMATION (1453-1517). INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--FRANCE: ENGLAND: SPAIN: GERMANY: ITALY: THE OTTOMAN TURKS: RUSSIA: THE INVASIONS OF ITALY CHAPTER II.--INVENTION AND DISCOVERY: THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD II. THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION (1517-1648). INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY: TO THE TREATY OF NUREMBERG (1517-1532) CHAPTER II.--THE REFORMATION IN TEUTONIC COUNTRIES: SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN, ENGLAND CHAPTER III.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, FROM THE PEACE OF NUREMBERG TO THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG (1532-1555) CHAPTER IV.--CALVINISM IN GENEVA: BEGINNING OF THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION CHAPTER V.--PHILIP II., AND THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS CHAPTER VI.--THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE, TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV. (1610) CHAPTER VII.--THE THIRTY-YEARS' WAR, TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA (1618-1648) CHAPTER VIII.--SECOND STAGE OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND: TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603) CHAPTER IX.--THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH (1603-1658) CHAPTER X.--COLONIZATION IN AMERICA: ASIATIC NATIONS: CULTURE AND LITERATURE (1517-1648) PERIOD III. FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1648-1789). INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE: FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. (TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, 1697): THE RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688 CHAPTER II.--WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT, 1713): DECLINE OF THE POWER OF FRANCE: POWER AND MARITIME SUPREMACY OF ENGLAND CHAPTER III.--THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR: THE FALL OF SWEDEN: GROWTH OF THE POWER OF RUSSIA CHAPTER IV.--WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION: GROWTH OF THE POWER OF PRUSSIA: THE DESTRUCTION OF POLAND CHAPTER V.--CONTEST OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN AMERICA: WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER VI.--LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1815). INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--FROM THE ASSEMBLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL TO THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. (1789-1793) CHAPTER II.--FROM THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE (JAN. 21, 1793-JULY 27, 1794) CHAPTER III.--FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON (1794-1804) CHAPTER IV.--FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE TO THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN (1804-1812) CHAPTER V.--FROM THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN (1812) TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1814-15) CHAPTER VI.--AMERICAN HISTORY IN THIS PERIOD (1789-1815) CHAPTER VII.--LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE (1789-1815) PERIOD V. FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE PRESENT TIME. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I.--EUROPE, FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1830 CHAPTER II.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 TO THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH OF 1848 CHAPTER III.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 TO THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR (1866) CHAPTER IV.--EUROPE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR TO THE END OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR (1866-1871) CHAPTER V.--EUROPE, FROM THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC, AND THE UNION OF ITALY (1871) CHAPTER VI.--THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1815: THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES: EASTERN ASIA CHAPTER VII.--THE LAST DECADE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER VIII.--DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: SCIENCE AND LITERATURE: PROGRESS OF HUMANE SENTIMENT: PROGRESS TOWARDS THE UNITY OF MANKIND LIST OF MAPS. THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ASIA ANCIENT EGYPT ANCIENT PALESTINE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE ANCIENT GREECE AND THE AEGEAN ISLANDS GREEK AND PHOENICIAN COLONIES EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT KINGDOMS OF THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER ANCIENT ITALY (NORTHERN PART) ANCIENT ITALY (SOUTHERN PART) ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE THE NEW NATIONS AFTER THE GREAT MIGRATIONS (ABOUT A.D. 500) EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS (ABOUT A.D. 750) EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 843 EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 887 CENTRAL EUROPE ABOUT A.D. 980 MEDITERRANEAN LANDS AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES FRANCE AND ENGLAND, A.D. 1154-1189 CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1360 CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1660 ITALY ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF IHE SIXTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE AT THE TIME OF NAPOLEON'S GREATEST POWER (ABOUT A.D. 1810) CENTRAL EUROPE IN 1815 EUROPE AFTER 1878 AUSTRO-HUNGARY SINCE 1878 FRANCE SINCE 1871 GERMAN EMPIRE SINCE 1871 TURKISH EMPIRE, GREECE, ETC., SINCE 1878 TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES ASIA AT THE PRESENT TIME UNIVERSAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. DEFINITION OF HISTORY.--The subject of history is man. History has for its object to record his doings and experiences. It may then be concisely defined as a narrative of past events in which men have been concerned. To describe the earth, the abode of man, to delineate the different kingdoms of nature, and to inquire into the origin of them, or to explain the physical or mental constitution of human beings, is no part of the office of history. All this belongs to the departments of natural and intellectual science. But history, as we now understand the term, is more than a bare record of what men have done and suffered. It aims to point out the connection of events with one another. It seeks to explain the causes and the consequences of things that occur. It would trace the steps that mark the progress of the race, and of the different portions of it, through extended periods. It brings to light the thread which unites each particular stage in the career of a people, or of mankind as a whole, with what went before, and with what came after. NATIONS.--History has been called "the biography of a society." Biography has to do with the career of an individual. History is concerned with the successive actions and fortunes of a community; in its broadest extent, with the experiences of the human family. It is only when men are connected by the social bond, and remain so united for a greater or less period, that there is room for history. It is, therefore, with nations, in their internal progress and in their mutual relations, that history especially deals. Of mere clans, or loosely organized tribes, it can have little to say. History can go no farther than to explore their genealogy, and state what were their journeyings and habits. The nation is a form of society that rests on the same basis--a basis at once natural and part of a divine system--as the family. By a nation is meant a people dwelling in a definite territory, living under the same government, and bound together by such ties as a common language, a common religion, the same institutions and customs. The elements that enter into that national spirit which is the bond of unity, are multiple. They vary to a degree in different peoples. As individuals are not alike, and as the history of any particular community is modified and molded by these individual differences, so the course of the history of mankind is shaped by the peculiar characteristics of the various nations, and by their interaction upon one another. In like manner, groups of nations, each characterized by distinctive traits derived from affinities of race or of religion, or from other sources, act on each other, and thus help to determine the course of the historic stream. SCOPE OF HISTORY.--The rise and progress of _culture_ and _civilization_ in their various constituents is the theme of history. It does not limit its attention to a particular fraction of a people, to the exclusion of the rest. Governments and rulers, and the public doings of states,--such as foreign wars, and the struggles of rival dynasties,--naturally form a prominent topic in historical writings. But this is only one department in the records of the past. More and more history interests itself in the character of society at large, and in the phases through which it has passed. How men lived from day to day, what their occupations were, their comforts and discomforts, their ideas, sentiments, and modes of intercourse, their state as regards art, letters, invention, religious enlightenment,--these are points on which history, as at present studied and written, undertakes to shed light. POINTS OF VIEW.--An eminent German philosopher of our day, _Hermann Lotze_, intimates that there are five phases of human development, and hence five points of view from which the course of history is to be surveyed. These are the _intellectual_ (embracing the progress of truth and knowledge), the _industrial_, the _aesthetic_ (including art in all its higher ramifications), the _religious_, and the political. An able English scholar, _Goldwin Smith_, resolves the elements of human progress, and thus the most general topics of history, into three, "the moral, the intellectual, and the productive; or, _virtue_, _knowledge_, and _industry_." "But these three elements," he adds, "though distinct, are not separate, but closely connected with each other." THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.--That there is, in some sense, a "reign of law" in the succession of human events, is a conviction warranted by observed facts, as well as inspired by religion. Events do not spring into being, disjoined from antecedents leading to them. Even turning-points in history, which seem, at the first glance, abrupt, are found to be dependent on previous conditions. They are perceived to be the natural issue of the times that have gone before. Preceding events have foreshadowed them. There are laws of historical progress which have their root in the characteristics of human nature. Ends are wrought out, which bear on them evident marks of design. History, as a whole, is the carrying out of a plan: "... through the ages one increasing purpose runs." _Augustine_ long ago argued, that he who has not left "even the entrails of the smallest and most insignificant animal, or the feather of a bird, or the little flower of a plant, or the leaf of a tree, without a harmony, and, as it were, a mutual peace among all its parts,--that God can never be believed to have left the kingdoms of men, their dominations and servitudes, outside of the laws of his providence." To discern the plan of history, and the causes or laws through which it is accomplished, as far as our limited capacity will allow, is the object of what is called the philosophy of history. FREEDOM AND LAW.--It must not be forgotten, however, that man is a free agent. History, although it is not an aimless process, is, nevertheless, not subject to the forces and laws which govern in the realm of matter. Physical analogies are not a literal image of what takes place in the sphere of intelligence and freedom. Moral evil, wherever it is a factor in history, has its origin in the will of man. In respect to it, the agency of God is permissive and overruling. Through his providence, order is made to emerge, a worthy goal is at last reached, despite the elements of disorder introduced by human perversity. Nor is progress continuous and unbroken. It is often, as one has said, a spiral rather than a straight line. It is not an unceasing advance: there are backward movements, or what appear to be such. Of particular nations it is frequently evident, that, intellectually and morally, as well as in power and thrift, they have sunk below a level once attained. Of the inscrutable blending of human freedom with a pre-ordained design, GUIZOT says: "Man advances in the execution of a plan which he has not conceived, and of which he is not even aware. He is the free and intelligent artificer of a work which is not his own." "Conceive a great machine, the design of which is centered in a single mind, though its various parts are intrusted to different workmen, separated from, and strangers to, each other. No one of them understands the work as a whole, nor the general result which he concurs in producing; but every one executes with intelligence and freedom, by rational and voluntary acts, the particular task assigned to him." (_Lectures on the History of Civilization_, Lect. xi.) PERSONAL POWER.--The progress of society has been inseparably connected with the agency of eminent persons. Signal changes, whether wholesome or mischievous, are linked to the names of individuals who have specially contributed to bring them to pass. The achievements of heroes stand out in as bold relief in authentic history as in the obscure era of myth and fable. Fruitful inventions, after the earlier steps in civilization are taken, are traceable to particular authors, exalted by their genius above the common level. So it is with the literary works which have exerted the deepest and most lasting influence. Nations have their pilots in war and in peace. Epochs in the progress of the fine arts are ushered in by individuals of surpassing mental power. Reforms and revolutions, which alter the direction of the historic stream, emanate from individuals in whose minds they are conceived, and by whose energy they are effected. The force thus exerted by the leaders in history is not accounted for by reference to general laws. Great men are not puppets moved by the spirit of the time. To be sure, there must be a preparation for them, and a groundwork of sympathy among their contemporaries: otherwise their activity would call forth no response. Independently of the age that gives them birth, their power would lose its distinctive form and hue: they would be incapable of influence. _Cromwell_ would not have been Cromwell had he been born in any other period of English history. Nor could he have played his part, being what he was, had not the religious and political struggles of England for generations framed a theater adapted to his talents and character. _Michael Angelo_ could not have arisen in a half-civilized tribe. His creative power would have found no field in a society rude, and blind to the attractions of art. Nevertheless, his power _was_ creative. Cromwell and Michael Angelo, and such as they, are not the passive organs, the mere outcome, of the communities in which they appear. Without the original thought and personal energy of leaders, momentous changes in the life of nations could never have taken place. A great man may be obliged to wait long for the answering sympathy which is required to give effect to his thoughts and purposes. Such a mind is said to be in advance of the age. Another generation may have to appear before the harvest springs from the seed that he has sown. Moreover, it is not true that great men, efficient leaders, come forward whenever there is an exigency calling for them, or an urgent need. Rather is it true that terrible disasters sometimes occur, at critical points in history, just for the lack of leaders fit for the emergency. THE MEANING OF HISTORY.--A thoughtful student can hardly fail to propose to himself the question, "What is the meaning of history? Why is this long drama with all that is noble and joyous in it, and with its abysses of sin and misery, enacted at all?" It is only a partial answer that one can hope to give to this grave inquiry, for the designs of Providence can not be fully fathomed. But, among the ends in view, the moral training of mankind stands forth with a marked prominence. The deliverance of the race from moral evil and error, and the building-up of a purified society, enriched with all the good that belongs to the ideal of humanity, and exalted by fellowship with God, is not only an end worthy in itself, but it is the end towards which the onward movement of history is seen to be directed. Hence, a central place in the course of history belongs to the life and work of Jesus Christ. No more satisfactory solution of this problem of the significance of history has ever been offered than that brought forward by the Apostle Paul in Acts xvii. 27, where he says that the nations of men were assigned to their places on the earth, and their duration as well as boundaries determined, "that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him." WORKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.-(Professor C. K. ADAMS'S _Manual of Historical Literature_ (1882) is an excellent guide in historical reading. Briefer lists of works in _Methods of Teaching and Studying History_, edited by G. Stanley Hall.) _Books on the Philosophy of History_: R. FLINT, _The Philosophy of History_, vol. i.,--Writers on the subject in France and Germany. Vol. ii. will treat of England and Italy. The work is a critical review of the literature on the subject. Schlegel, _The Philosophy of History_; Shedd's _Lectures on the Philosophy of History_; Bunsen's _God in History_ (3 vols., 1870); LOTZE, _Mikrokosmus_, vol. iii, book vii.; Montesquieu's _Spirit of the Laws_; Buckle, _History of Civilization in England_ (2 vols.). This work is based on the denial of free-will, and the doctrine that physical influences,--climate, soil, food, etc.,--are the main causes of intellectual progress. Draper's _History of the Intellectual Development of Europe_(2 vols., 2d edition, 1876) is in the same vein. Opposed to this philosophy are GOLDWIN SMITH'S _Lectures on the Study of History_; C. Kingsley, in his _Miscellanies, The Limits of Exact Science as applied to History_; Froude, in _Short Studies_, vol. i., _The Science of History_; Lotze, as above; also, Flint, and Droysen, _Grundriss der Historik_. Hegel's _Philosophy of History_ has profound observations, but connected with an _a priori_ theory. HISTORICAL WRITING.--The beginning of historical writing was in the form of lists of kings, or bare records of battles, or the simple registration of other occurrences of remarkable interest. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese, and other nations, furnish examples of this rudimental type of historical writing. More continuous annals followed; but these are meager in contents, and make no attempt to find links of connection between events. The ancient Hebrew historians are on a much higher plane, and, apart from their religious value, far surpass all other Asiatic histories. It was in _Greece_, the fountain-head of science, that history, as an art, first appeared. _Herodotus_, born early in the fifth century B.C., first undertook to satisfy curiosity respecting the past by a more elaborate and entertaining narrative. He begins his work thus: "These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and marvelous actions of the Greeks and the barbarians from losing their due meed of glory, and withal to put on record what were the grounds of their hostility." In Herodotus, history, owing to the inquiry made into the causes of events, begins to rise above the level of a mere chronicle, its primitive type. _Thucydides_, who died about 400 B.C., followed. He is far more accurate in his investigations, having a deep insight into the origin of the events which he relates, and is a model of candor. He, too, writes to minister to the inquisitive spirit of his countrymen, and of the generations that were to follow. He began to write his history of the war between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians while it was still going on, in the belief, he says, "that it would turn out great, and worthier of being recorded than any that had preceded it." The attention of historical writers was still confined to a particular country, or to insulated groups of events. Before there could spring up the idea of universal history, it was necessary that there should be a broader view of mankind as a whole. The ancient _Stoics_ had a glimpse of the race as a family, and of the nations as forming one complex unity. The conquests and extended dominion of Rome first suggested the idea of universal history. _Polybius_, a Greek in the second century B.C., had watched the progress of Rome, in its career of conquest, until "the affairs of Italy and Africa," as he says, "joined with those of Asia and Greece, and all moved together towards one fixed and single point." He tells us that particular histories can not give us a knowledge of the whole, more than the survey of the divided members of a body once endowed with life and beauty can yield a just conception of all the comeliness and vigor which it has received from Nature. To Polybius belongs the distinction of being the first to undertake a universal history. Christianity, with its doctrine of the unity of mankind, and with all the moral and religious teaching characteristic of the gospel, contributed effectively to the widening of the view of the office and scope of history. It is only in quite recent times that history has directed its attention predominantly to _social progress_, and to its causes and conditions. History, in its etymological sense (from the Greek, historia), meant the ascertaining of facts by inquiry; then, the results of this inquiry, the knowledge thus obtained. The work of Herodotus was "history" in the strictest sense: he acquired his information by travel and personal interrogation. The German philosopher, _Hegel_, has divided histories into three classes: 1. _Original histories_; i.e., works written by contemporaries of the events described, who share in the spirit of the times, and may have personally taken part in the transactions. Such are the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon's Anabasis, Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion in England, Caesar's Commentaries. 2. _Reflective histories_, where the author writes at a later point of time, on the basis of materials which he gathers up, but is not himself a partaker in the spirit of the age of which he treats. 3. _Philosophical histories_, which set forth the rational development of history in its inmost idea. Another classification is the following: 1. _Genealogies_, like the records of Manetho, the Egyptian priest. 2. _The chronicle_, following the chronological order, and telling the story in a simple, popular way. 3. _The "pragmatic"_ form of writing, which aims to explain by reference to the past some particular characteristic or phase of the present, and uses history to point a special moral lesson. 4. The form of history which traces the rise and progress of "_ideas_," tendencies, or ruling forces,--such as the idea of civil equality in early Rome or in modern France, the religious ideas of Mohammedanism, the idea of representative government, the idea of German unity, etc. A broad line of distinction has been drawn between "the old or _artistic_ type of history," and the new or _sociological_ type which belongs to the present century. The ancient historians represented the former type. They prized literary form. They aimed to interweave moral and political reflections. Polybius often interrupts his narrative to introduce remarks of this sort. But they were not, as a rule, diligent and accurate in their researches. And, above all, they had no just conception of society as a whole, and of the complex forces out of which the visible scene springs. The Greeks were the masters in this first or artistic form of history. The French Revolution was one stimulus to a profounder and more comprehensive method of studying history. The methods and investigations of natural science have had a decided influence in the same direction. THE SOURCES OF HISTORY.--History must depend for credence on credible evidence. In order to justify belief, one must either himself have seen or heard the facts related, or have the testimony, direct or indirect, of witnesses or of well-informed contemporaries. The sources of historic knowledge are mainly comprised in _oral tradition_, or in some form of _written records_. _Tradition_ is exposed to the infirmities of memory, and to the unconscious invention and distortion which grow out of imagination and feeling. Ordinarily, bare tradition, not verified by corroborative proofs, can not be trusted later than the second generation from the circumstances narrated. It ceases to be reliable when it has been transmitted through more than two hands. In the case of a great and startling event, like a destructive convulsion of nature or a protracted war, the authentic story, though unwritten, of the central facts, at least, is of much longer duration. There may be visible monuments that serve to perpetuate the recollection of the occurrences which they commemorate. _Institutions_ may exist--popular festivals and the like--which keep alive the memory of past events, and, in certain circumstances, are sufficient to verify them to generations far removed in time. Events of a stirring character, when they are embodied in _songs_ of an early date, may be transmitted orally, though in a poetic dress. Songs and legends, it may be added, even when they do not suffice to verify the incidents to which they refer, are valuable as disclosing the sentiments and habits of the times when they originated, or were cherished. The central fact, the nucleus of the tradition, may be historical when all the details belonging with it have been effaced, or have been superseded by other details, the product of imagination. The historical student is to distinguish between traditionary tales which are _untrustworthy throughout_, and traditions which have _their roots in fact_. Apart from oral tradition, the sources of historical knowledge are the following:-- 1. Contemporary registers, chronicles, and other documents, either now, or known to have been originally, in a manuscript form. 2. Inscriptions on monuments and coins. Such, for example, are the inscriptions on the monuments of Egypt and on the buried ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. Such are the ancient epitaphs, heathen and Christian, in the Roman catacombs. The study of ancient inscriptions of various sorts has thrown much light of late upon Grecian and Roman antiquity. 3. The entire literature of a people, in which its intellectual, moral, and social condition, at any particular era, is mirrored. 4. Material structures of every kind, as altars, tombs, private dwellings,--as those uncovered at Pompeii,--public edifices, civil and religious, paintings, weapons, household utensils. These all tell a story relative to the knowledge and taste, the occupations and domestic habits, and the religion, of a past generation or of an extinct people. 5 Language is a memorial of the past, of the more value since it is not the product of deliberate contrivance. _Comparative philology_, following languages back to their earlier stages and to the parent stocks, unveils the condition of society at remote epochs. It not only describes the origin of nations, but teaches something respecting their primitive state. 6. Histories written at former periods, but subsequently to the events described in them, are a secondary but valuable source of historical knowledge. This is especially true when their authors had access to traditions that were nearer their fountain, or to literary monuments which have perished. HISTORICAL CRITICISM.--Historical scholars are much more exacting as regards evidence than was formerly the case. The criticism of what purports to be proof is more searching. At the same time, what is called "historical divination" can not be altogether excluded. Learned and sagacious scholars have conjectured the existence of facts, where a gap in recorded history--"the logic of events"--seemed to presuppose them; and later discoveries have verified the guess. This is analogous to the success of Leverrier and Adams in inferring the existence of an unknown planet, which the telescope afterwards discovered. An example of historical divination on a large scale is furnished by the theories of the great German historian, _Niebuhr_, in respect to early Roman history. He propounded opinions, however, which in many particulars fail to obtain general assent at present. CREDIBILITY OF HISTORY.--At the opposite pole from credulity is an unwarrantable historical skepticism. The story is told of Sir Walter Raleigh, that when he was a prisoner in the Tower, and was engaged in writing his _History of the World_, he heard the sounds of a fracas in the prison-yard. On inquiry of those who were concerned in it, and were on the spot, he found so many contradictions in their statements that he could not get at the truth. Whereupon, it occurred to him as a vain thing to undertake to describe what had occurred on the vast theater of the world, when he could not ascertain the truth about an event occurring within a bow-shot. The anecdote simply illustrates, however, the difficulty of getting at the exact truth respecting details,--a difficulty constantly exemplified in courts of justice. The fact of the conflict in the court of the Tower, the general cause, the parties engaged, the consequences,--as, for example, what punishment was inflicted,--were undisputed. The great facts which influence the course of history, it is not difficult to ascertain. Moreover, as against an extravagant skepticism, it may be said that history provides us with a vast amount of authentic information which contemporaries, and even individual actors, were not possessed of. This is through the bringing to light of documents from a great variety of sources, many of which were secret, or not open to the view of all the leaders in the transactions to which they refer. The private correspondence of the Protestant leaders,--Luther, Melanchthon, Cranmer, etc.,--the letters of Erasmus, the official reports of the Venetian ambassadors, the letters of William the Silent and of Philip II., put us in possession of much information, which at the time was a secret to most of the prominent participants in the events of the sixteenth century. The correspondence of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, John Adams, Wolcott, Pickering, etc., introduces us into the secret counsels of the American political leaders of that day. Numerous facts conveyed from one to another under the seal of privacy, and not known to the others, are thus revealed to us. On the nature and value of tradition, a very valuable discussion is that of EWALD, _History of Israel_, vol. i. pp. 13-38; Sir G. C. LEWIS, _ Essays on the Credibility of Early Roman History_, in which Niebuhr's conclusions are criticised; A. Bisset, _Essays on Historical Truth_. On the sources of history, Art. by GAIRDNER in _The Contemporary Review_, vol. xxxviii. HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.--Political Geography, which describes the earth as inhabited, and as parceled out among nations, has a close relation to history. Without a distinct idea of the position of places and the boundaries of countries, historical narrations are enveloped in a sort of haze. _France_, for example, is a name with very different meanings at different dates in the past. Unless the varying uses of the word _Burgundy_ are understood, important parts of European history are left in confusion. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Even more helpful is _Physical Geography_, which surveys the earth in its three great divisions,--land, sea, and air,--without reference to lines of political demarkation. The configuration of the different portions of the globe, with the varieties of climate, the relations of mountain and plain, of land and water, have strongly affected the character of nations and the currents of history. In regions extremely hot or extremely cold man can not thrive, or build up a rich and enduring civilization. The occupations of a people are largely dependent on its situation,--whether it be maritime or away from the sea,--and on peculiarities of soil and temperature. The character of the Nile valley, and its periodical inundation, is a striking illustration of the possible extent of geographical influences. The peninsular and mountainous character of Greece went far to shape the form of Greek political society. The high plateau which forms the greater portion of Spain, with the fertile belts of valley on the Atlantic and Mediterranean border, have helped to determine the employments and the character of the Spanish people. Had the physical characteristics of the Spanish peninsula been essentially different, the success of Wellington in expelling the French, with the forces at his disposal, would not have been possible. Were there a chain of mountains along our Atlantic coast as near as are the Andes to the Pacific, what different results would have arisen from the English settlements in North America! The Alpine barrier in the north of Italy was indispensable to the building-up and maintenance of the dominion of ancient Rome. Of the great basin or plain between the Alps and the Apennines, open to the sea only on the east, through which flows one great river, fed by streams from the mountains on either side, Dr. Arnold says: "Who can wonder that this large and richly watered plain should be filled with flourishing cities, or that it should have been contended for so often by successful invaders?" While the agency of climate, soil, and other physical circumstances may easily be exaggerated, that agency must be duly considered in accounting for historical phenomena. The best historical Atlas is the copious German work of VON SPRUNER. FREEMAN'S _Historical Geography of Europe_ is a work of great value. DROVSEN'S _Allg. Hist. Atlas._ Smaller atlases are those of PUTZGER, Rhode, Appleton's _Hist. Atlas_, the _International_, and the _Collegiate_. Smaller still, Keith Johnston's Crown Atlases and Half-Crown Atlases. On Mediæval History, Labberton's Atlas; also, Koeppen: in Ancient Geography, SMITH'S work, KIEPERT'S, Long's. On Physical Geography, GUYOT'S text-books; Vaughan's _Connection between History and Physical Geography_, in _Contemp. Review_, vol. v.; Hall's _Methods of Studying History_, etc., p. 201 _seq._, _Encycl. Brit._, Art. _Geography_. CHRONOLOGY.--An exact method of establishing dates was slowly reached. The invention of eras was indispensable to this end. The earliest definite time for the dating of events was established at Babylon,--the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. The Greeks, from about 300 B.C., dated events from the first recorded victory at the Olympic games, 776 B.C. These games occurred every fourth year. Each Olympiad was thus a period of four years. The Romans, though not until some centuries after the founding of Rome, dated from that event; i.e., from 753 B.C. The Mohammedan era begins at the Hegira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca, 622 A.D. The method of dating from the birth of Jesus was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, about the middle of the sixth century. This epoch was placed by him about four years too late. This requires us to fix the date of the birth of Christ at 4 B.C. The day was the simplest and earliest division of time. The week has been in use for this purpose in the East from time immemorial. It was not introduced among the Romans until after the spread of Christianity in the Empire. The month was the earlier unit for periods of greater length. To make the lunar and the solar years correspond, and to determine the exact length of the solar year, was a work of difficulty, and was only gradually effected. _Julius_ _Cæsar_ reformed the calendar in 46 B.C., the date of the Julian era. This made the year eleven minutes too long. _Pope Gregory XIII_. corrected the reckoning, in 1582, by ordering Oct. 5th to be called the 15th, and instituted the "Gregorian calendar." The change, or the "New Style," was subsequently adopted by Great Britain (in 1752), and by the other Protestant nations. The difference for the present century between the Old and the New Style is twelve days: during the last century it was eleven. The Julian civil year began with Jan. 1. It was not until the eighteenth century that this became the uniform date for the commencement of the legal year among the Latin Christian nations. On the general subjects of chronology: _Encycl. Britt_., Arts. _Chronology_ and _Calendar_. Manuals of Reference: ROSSE'S _Index of Dates_ (1858); Haydn's _Dictionary of Dates_ (Vincent's edition, 1866); BLAIR'S _Chronological Tables_; Woodward and Cates, _Encycl. of Chronology_ (1872). ETHNOLOGY. Ethnology is a new science. Its function is to ascertain the origin and filiation, the customs and institutions, of the various nations and tribes which make up, or have made up in the past, the human race. In tracing their relationship to one another, or their genealogy, the sources of information are mainly three,--_physical characteristics, language_, and _written memorials_ of every sort. Ethnology is a branch of Anthropology, as this is a subdivision of Zoölogy, and this, again, of Biology. Ethnography differs from Ethnology in dealing more with details of description, and less with rational exposition. RACES OF MANKIND.--Authorities differ widely from one another in their classification of races. _Prichard_ made seven, which were reduced by _Cuvier_ to three; viz., _Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopic. Blumenbach_ made five, and _Pickering_ eleven. It is the Caucasian variety which has been chiefly distinguished in history, and active in the building-up of civilization. None of the numerous schemes of division, from a zoölogical point of view, however, are satisfactory. _Huxley_ has proposed a fourfold classification: 1. The Australoid, represented by the Australians and the indigenous tribes of Southern India. 2. The Negroid. 3. The Mongoloid. 4. The Xanthochroi, or fair whites, among whom are comprised most of the inhabitants of Northern Europe. To these are added a fifth variety, the Melanochroi, to which belong a part of the Celts, the Spaniards, Greeks, Arabs, etc. Of the various methods of race-division, _A. van Humboldt_ says: "We fail to recognize any typical sharpness of definition, or any general or well-established principle, in the division of these groups. The extremes of form and color are certainly separated, but without regard to the races which can not be included in any of these classes." (_Cosmos_, i. 365.) For example, black skin, woolly hair, and a negro-like cast of countenance, are not necessarily connected together. MONOGENISM.--Zoölogists, from the point of view of their own science, now more generally favor the _monogenist_ doctrine, which traces mankind to a single pair, than the polygenist, which assumed different centers of origin. The present tendencies of natural science, especially since Darwin, are favorable to the monogenist view. "The opinion of modern Zoölogists, whose study of the species and breeds of animals makes them the best judges, is against this view of the several origins of man, for two principal reasons. First, That all tribes of men, from the blackest to the whitest, the most savage to the most cultured, have such general likeness in the structure of their bodies and the working of their minds, as is easiest and best accounted for by their being descended from a common ancestry, however distant. Second, That all the human races, notwithstanding their form and color, appear capable of freely intermarrying, and forming crossed races of every combination, such as the millions of mulattoes and mestizoes sprung in the New World from the mixture of Europeans, Africans, and native Americans; this again points to a common ancestry of all the races of man. We may accept the theory of the unity of mankind as best agreeing with ordinary experience and scientific research." (Tylor's _Anthropology_, etc., pp. 5, 6.) EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE.--Languages, through marked affinities, are grouped together into several great families, i. The _Aryan_, or Indo-European, of which the oldest known branch is the Sanskrit, the language in which the ancient books of the Hindus, the Vedas, were written. With the Sanskrit belong the Iranian or Persian, the Greek, the Latin or Italic, the Celtic, the Germanic or Teutonic (under which are included the Scandinavian tongues), the Slavonian or Slavo-Lettic. 2. The _Semitic_, embracing the communities described in Genesis as the descendants of Shem. Under this head are embraced, first, the Assyrian and Babylonian; secondly, the Hebrew and Phoenician, with the Syrian or Aramaic; and thirdly, the Arabic. The Phoenician was spread among numerous colonies, of which Carthage was the chief. The Arabic followed the course of Mohammedan conquest. It is the language of the northern border of Africa, and has strongly affected various other languages,--the Persian, Turkish, etc. 3. The _Turanian or Scythian_. This is an extensive family of languages. The Finno-Hungarian, which includes two cultivated peoples, the Fins and Hungarians; the Samoyed, stretching from the North Sea far eastward to the boundary between Russia and China; and the Turkish or Tartar, spreading from European Turkey over a great part of Central Asia, are connected together by family ties. They spring from one parent stock. Whether the Mongolian and the Tungusic--the last is the language of the Manchus--are also thus affiliated, is a point not absolutely settled. Besides these three great divisions, there are other languages, as the _Chinese_, and the monosyllabic tongues of south-eastern Asia, which possibly are connected lineally with it; the _Japanese_; the _Malay-Polynesian_, a well-developed family; the _Hamitic_ (of which the Egyptian or Coptic is the principal member); the _Dravidian_ or _South Indian_; the _South African_; the _Central African_; the _American Indian_ languages, etc. On language and the divisions of language, W. D. WHITNEY, _Language, and the Study of Language_ (1867), _Oriental and Linguistic Studies_ (two series, 1872-74), _Life and Growth of Language_ (1875); Art. _Philology_, in _Encycl. Brit_., vol. xviii.; Max Müller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_ (two series), and other writings by the same author. ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY.--History is generally written from the political point of view. It is the history of nations considered separately and in relation to one another. There are, also, histories of culture. History, from a cultural point of view, without paying regard to national boundaries, seeks to unfold the rise and progress of arts and industry, of inventions, of customs, manners, and institutions. It is the history of culture and civilization. History, from the ethnological point of view, would describe the migrations and experiences of the different races of men, and the formation of the various nationalities by these races, through conquest and intermixture. Following the divisions of linguistic science, we should have, first, the _Egyptian_ race and their history. Then we should have the _Semitic_ race, in the three eras of their pre-eminence, and in their various branches. Then would come the _Aryan_, or Indo-European family, whose power, except when interrupted and partially broken by the Mohammedan conquests, has continued to dominate in history since the rise of the ancient Persian Empire. There have been three periods of Semitic ascendency,--the era of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; that of the Phoenician cities and of Carthage (a Tyrian settlement), with their colonies; and that of the Arabic-Mohammedan Conquests. This last epoch falls within the Christian era. In this course of Semitic history would be embraced the narrative of the Israelites, and of their dispersion in ancient and in modern times. The Indo-European, or Aryan family, follows next in order. In recording its history, we should consider, first, its oldest representative of which we have knowledge,--the Indian race, with its literature, its social organization, and its religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism. Then come the Persians, with their religion founded by _Zoroaster_, and the Armenians. With the fall of the Ancient Persian Empire, the center of power was transferred from Asia to Europe, where it has since continued, though still in the hands of the same Aryan race. The history of the Greeks and of the Romans succeeds; then the history of the three races,--the Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonian,--as they present themselves at the threshold of authentic history. The forming of the several nationalities of Europe would have to be traced: the Slavonian, including Russia and Poland; the Teutonic, comprising England, Holland, Germany, and the Scandinavian peoples (viz., Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland); the Romanic or Italic nations (viz., Portugal, Spain, Provence, Italy, Wallachia, the Grisons of Switzerland), which are the nations the basis of whose languages is the rustic or people's Latin of the middle ages. Such, in brief outline, is the method which history, from the point of view of race affinities, as these are indicated by language, would adopt. UNITY OF DESCENT.--Whether mankind are all descended from one pair--the _Monogenist_ view, or spring from more than one center of origin--the _Polygenist_ view, is a question which philological science can not answer. The facts of language are reconcilable with either doctrine. While cautious philologists are slow in admitting distinct affinities between the generic families of speech,--as the Semitic and Indo-European,--which would be indicative of a common origin, they agree in the judgment, that, on account of the mutability of language, especially when unwritten, and while in its earlier stages, no conclusion adverse to the monogenist doctrine can be drawn from the diversities of speech now existing, or that are known to have existed at any past time. As far as science is concerned, the decision of the question must be left to zoölogy. The tendencies of natural science at present, as we have said above, are strongly toward the monogenist view. The variety of physical characteristics not only affords no warrant for assuming diversity of species among men; they do not even imply diversity of parentage at the beginning. "Nothing," says Max Müller, "necessitates the admission of different independent beginnings for the _material_ elements" [the vocabulary] "of the Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of speech." The same thing Müller affirms of "the formal elements" [the grammatical structure] "of these groups of languages." "We can perfectly understand how, either through individual influences or by the wear and tear of speech in its continuous working, the different systems of grammar of Asia and Europe may have been produced." (_Lectures on Language_, 1st series, p. 340.) The same conclusions are reached by Professor W. D. Whitney, who, while disclaiming for linguistic science the power to prove that the human race in the beginning formed one society, says, that it is "even far more demonstrable" that it can "never prove the variety of human races and origins." (_Life and Growth of Language_, p. 269.) We know that nations can learn and unlearn a language. The Irish, adopting the language of their English conquerors, is one of many examples of the same sort in history. What effects upon language took place, prior to recorded history, from the mingling of tribes and peoples, it is impossible to ascertain. The consequences to language, of mixture among different forms of speech, were like those which must have been produced upon the physical man from the mingling of diverse physical types in remote ages. Science, if it has no decided verdict to render, does not stand in conflict with the monogenist doctrine, which has generally been understood to be the teaching of the Scriptures. MYTHOLOGY. The polytheistic religions are in themselves a highly interesting part of the history of mankind. In the multiform character that belongs to them we find reflected the peculiar traits of the several peoples among whom they have arisen. The history of religion stands in a close connection with the development of the fine arts,--architecture and sculpture, painting, music, and also poetry. The earliest rhythmical utterance was in hymns to the gods. To worship, all the arts are largely indebted for their birth and growth. This, however, is only one of the ways in which religion is interwoven with the rise and progress of civilization. By _mythology_; we mean the collective beliefs of any tribe or nation respecting deities or semi-divine personages. Recent studies in language, or the science of _comparative philology_, have thrown light on the origin of mythology, and upon the affinities of different polytheistic religions with one another. Among various nations belonging to the same family (as, for example, the peoples of the _Aryan_ race), names of gods, and, to some extent, qualities and deeds attributed to them, have been identified. Myths are found to have traveled in different guises from land to land. At the same time, these discoveries have given rise to much unverified theory and conjecture. Too much stress has been laid, by certain writers, on _mistakes in language_ as a source of mythology. In the primitive stage of language, all nouns had a _gender_, either male or female; and verbs, even auxiliary verbs, it is alleged, expressed _activity_ of some sort. On the basis of these facts it has been inferred, that, at a later day, figurative expressions, descriptive of natural changes, were taken as literal; as if one should interpret the saying, "the sun follows the dawn," as meaning that one person pursues another. By this kind of misunderstanding, it has been thought, a throng of mythological tales arose. By some it is held that the names of animals, which had been given to ancestors, were interpreted literally by their savage descendants, or that traditions of having come from a certain _mountain_ or _river_ caused these natural objects to be mistakenly regarded as actual progenitors. These suggestions are of very limited value in solving the problem of the origin of the ethnic religions. Much, however, has been learned from observing the rites and beliefs of existing savage nations. Not a few religious notions and ceremonies, once in vogue among cultivated heathen peoples, may be plausibly considered a survival from a more remote and barbarous condition of society. That mythology is the product of a mere exaggeration of actual events, or is an allegorical picture, either of the operations of nature or of human traits, is an untenable and obsolete view. We shall not err in defining the main sources of the religions to be, _first_, the sense of dependence, and the yearning for the fellowship and favor of powers "not ourselves," by which the lot of men is felt to be determined; _secondly_, the effort to explain the world of nature above and beneath, and the occurrences of life; and _thirdly_, the personifying instinct which belongs to the childhood of nations as of individuals. This tendency leads to the attributing of conscious life to things inanimate. A like tendency may impel the savage and the child to ascribe mind to the lower animals. The fact that language, in its earlier stage, was charged with personal life and activity, is itself the work of the personifying instinct. When nature is thus personified, where there is no sense of its unity and no capacity to rise in faith to a living God above nature, the result is a multitude of divinities of higher and lower rank. _Myths_ respecting them are the spontaneous invention of unreflecting and uncritical, but imaginative, peoples. Thus they serve to indicate the range of ideas, and the moral spirit of those who originate and give credence to them. This is not the place to consider the question, What was the primitive religion of man? The earliest deities that history brings to our notice were not fetiches, but heavenly beings of lofty attributes. Whether the religions of savage tribes, in common with their low grade of intelligence, are, or are not, the result of _degeneracy_, is a question which secular history affords no means of deciding with confidence, It may be added, that, in historic eras, the mythopoeic fancy is not inactive. Stories of marvelous adventure clustered about the old Celtic King Arthur of England and the "knights of the Round-Table," and fill up the chronicles relating to Charlemagne. Wherever there is a person who kindles popular enthusiasm, myths accumulate. This is eminently true in an atmosphere like that which prevailed in the mediaeval period, when imagination and emotion were dominant. PREHISTORIC TIMES. PREHISTORIC RELICS.--Within the last half century, in various countries of Europe, and in other countries, also, which have been, earlier or later, seats of civilization, there have been found numerous relics of uncivilized races, which, at periods far remote, must have inhabited the same ground. Many of these antiquities are met with in connection with remains of fossil elephants, hyenas, bears, etc.,--with animals which no longer live in the regions referred to, and some of which have become wholly extinct. Dwelling-places of these far-distant peoples--such as caves and rock-shelters, and the remains of the lake-habitations that were built on piles, in Switzerland and elsewhere--sepulchers, camps, and forts, and an immense number of implements and ornaments of stone and metal, have been examined. The most ancient of these monuments carry us as far back as the era called by geologists the _Quaternary_ or _Drift_ period. THE THREE STAGES.--But there are marked distinctions in the relative age of the various relics referred to. They indicate different degrees of knowledge and skill; and this proof of a succession of peoples, or of stages of development, is confirmed by geological evidence. The prehistoric time is divided into _the Stone Age_, _the Age of Bronze_, and _the Age of Iron_, according as the implements in use were of one or another of these materials. But the Stone Age includes an _earlier_ and a _later_ sub-division. In the first and most ancient section, the weapons and utensils, mostly of flint, were very rude in their manufacture. This was the _Paleolithic Age_, where there are no signs of habitations constructed by the hand, or of domesticated plants and animals. Men lived in caves, and their vestments were the skins of beasts. Yet, among their implements are found fragments of bone, horn, ivory, and stone, on which are carved in outline, often with much skill, representations of the reindeer, the bear, the ox, and of other animals. In the _Neolithic_ period, there was a decided advance. Implements are better made and polished. There were domestic animals and cultivated plants. The lake-dwellings in Switzerland were well contrived for shelter and defense. Every hut had its hearth. It is probable that most of them were furnished with a loom for weaving. Fragments of pottery are found, and flax was grown and made into cord, nettings, etc. Stalls were constructed near the huts for the ox, the goat, the horse, sheep, and pigs. The lake-dwellers cultivated wheat and barley. The _Bronze Age_, when implements were made of copper or of a mixture of copper and tin, exhibits proof of decided improvement in various directions; and the _Age of Iron_, a still more marked advance. In the Swiss remains referred to are distinct traces of a transition from the Stone Age to the Age of Bronze, and then to the Age of Iron. The kitchen-middens, or shell-mounds, of Denmark belong exclusively to the Neolithic period. Where the transition was made from the Stone Age to the Age of Bronze, it apparently occurred in some cases by degrees, and peacefully; but sometimes by the incoming of an invading people more advanced. It should be observed that the lines of division between these periods are not sharply drawn: implements of stone continued to be used after the Bronze and even the Iron periods had been introduced. Nor were these several ages in one region contemporaneous with like conditions in every other. Moreover, it is not possible to find in all countries once civilized proofs of a passage through these successive eras. In Egypt, the evidences of a Stone Age are scanty. The most ancient human remains show that man in his physical characteristics was on a level with man at present. _Dr. Daniel Wilson_, speaking of the age of the Flint-folk, says: "It is of no slight importance to perceive that the interval which has wrought such revolutions in the earth" [involving great geological changes and mutations of climate] "as are recorded in the mammaliferous drift, shows man the same reasoning, tentative, and inventive mechanician, as clearly distinguished then from the highest orders of contemporary life of the Elephantine or Cave periods, as he is now from the most intelligent of the brute creation.... The oldest art-traces of the paleotechnic men of central France not only surpass those of many savage races, but they indicate an intellectual aptitude in no degree inferior to the average Frenchman of the nineteenth century." (_Prehistoric Man_, pp. 33, 34.) Literature.--Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, etc. (2 vols., 1876); Joly, _Man before the Metals_ (1883); Keary, _The Dawn of History_. The writings of E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (2 vols.), _Anthropology, Early History of Mankind_; his Art. _Anthropology, Encycl. Britt_.; Lubbock's _Prehistoric Times_, and his _Origin of Civilization_; Argyll, _The Unity of Nature _(1884); J. Geikie, _Prehistoric Europe_ (1881); Lyell, _The Antiquity of Man_; W. E. Hearn, _The Aryan Household_; L. H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_. THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.--Science does not furnish us with the means of fixing the date of the first human inhabitants of the earth. But its various departments of investigation concur in pronouncing the interval between the creation of man and the present to be far longer than the traditional opinion has assumed. For the growth of language and its manifold ramifications; for the development of the different races of mankind, physically considered; for the geological changes since the beginning of the Stone Age in the regions where its relics are uncovered; for the rise of the most ancient civilization in Egypt as well as in Babylon and China,--it is thought that periods of very long duration are indispensable. As to the date of the Neolithic man, or of the last section of the Stone Age, Professor J. Geikie writes: "Any term of years I might suggest would be a mere guess; but I have written to little purpose, however, if the phenomena described in the preceding chapters have failed to leave the impression upon the reader, that the advent of Neolithic man in Europe must date back far beyond fifty or seventy centuries." (_Prehistoric Europe_, p. 558.) The chronology gathered from Genesis has been supposed to place the date of man's creation at a point far less remote. Usher's calculation, attached to the authorized English Version of the Bible, sets this date at 4004 B.C. The discussion of these questions of Scriptural chronology belongs to theology and biblical criticism. It may be observed here, however, that of the three forms in which Genesis is handed down to us,--the Hebrew text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint, or ancient Greek translation,--no two agree in the numbers on which the estimate is founded. Hence Hales and Jackson, following the larger numbers in the genealogies of the Septuagint, place the date of the creation at a point about fourteen hundred years prior to that fixed upon by Usher. ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY. The periods of history are not divided from one another by merely chronological limits, according to intervals of time of a definite duration. Such a classification may be of use to the memory, but it is arbitrary in its character. The landmarks of history are properly placed at the turning-points where new eras take their start, whether the intervals between them are longer or shorter. Of these natural divisions, the most general and the most marked is that between ancient and modern history. Ancient history not only precedes modern in time: it is distinguished from the latter as relating to a by-gone state of things. Modern history, on the contrary, deals with an order of things now existing. Between the two there is this line of demarkation. History (with the exception of China and India, which require distinct consideration, as standing apart) begins with Egypt, and flows down in a continuous stream, until, in the fourth century A.D., the Roman Empire, into which the ancient civilized peoples were incorporated, was broken up. Then the new nations, especially the tribes of the Germanic race, took power into their hands; Christianity was established among them; out of the chaos of elements there emerged the European nations, with their offshoots,--the peoples at present on the stage of action. Ancient history had its center in the Mediterranean. It embraced the peoples who dwelt on the shores of that sea, in the three continents, and the nations that were brought into relations with them. The Roman Empire, the final outcome of ancient history, was "the monarchy of the Mediterranean." With the breaking-up of the Empire, new races, new centers of power, a universal religion in the room of national religions, and a new type of culture and civilization, were introduced. Invaluable legacies were handed over from the past, surviving the wreck of ancient civilization. There is, however, a unity in history: the transition from the ancient to the modern era was gradual. MEDIAEVAL AND LATER MODERN HISTORY. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has occurred no revolution to be compared with the circumstances and results of that event. An old world passed away, and a new world began to be. Yet the student, as he travels hitherward, arrives at another epoch of extraordinary change,--a period of ferment, when modern society in Europe takes on a form widely different from the character that had belonged to it previously. The long interval between _ancient_ history and _modern_ (in this more restricted sense of thes term) is styled the Middle Ages. Its termination may be found in the fifteenth century, and a convenient date to mark the boundary-line is the capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). History thus divides itself into three parts:-- Part I. Ancient History, to the migrations of the Germanic Tribes (375 A.D). Part II. Mediæval History, from A.D. 375 to the Fall of Constantinople (1453). PART III. Modern History, from 1453 until the present. Works on General History.--Ranke, _Universal History_; Ploetz, _Epitome of Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern History_ (Boston, 1884); Weber, _Weitgeschichte_ (2 vols.); Assmann, _Handbuch d. allgemeinen Geschichte_ (5 vols., 1853-1862); by the same, _Abriss d. allgem. Gesch._ (in 3 parts); Oncken, _Allgem. Geschichte in Einzeidarstellungen_ (a series of full monographs of high merit). Copious works on Universal History, in German, by Weber, Schlosser, Becker, Leo. Laurent, _Études sur l'Histoire de l'Humanitè_ (this is an extended series of historical dissertations),--_The Orient and Greece_ (2 vols.); _Rome_ (1 vol.); _Christianity_ (1 vol.), etc. Prévost-Paradol, _Essai sur l'Histoire Universelle_ (2 vols.: a suggestive critical survey of the course of history, with the omission of details). S. Willard, _Synopsis of History_. PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY. FROM THE BEGINNING OF AUTHENTIC HISTORY TO THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TEUTONIC TRIBES (A.D. 375). DIVISIONS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.--Ancient history separates itself into two main divisions. In the first the Oriental nations form the subject; in the second, which follows in the order of time, the European peoples, especially Greece and Rome, have the central place. The first division terminates, and the second begins, with the rise of Grecian power and the great conflict of Greece with the Persian Empire, 492 B.C. SECTIONS OF ORIENTAL HISTORY.--But Oriental history divides itself into two distinct sections. The first embraces China and India, nations apart, and disconnected from the Mediterranean and adjacent peoples. China and India have a certain bond of connection with one another through the spread in China of the Buddhistic religion. The second section includes the great empires which preceded, and paved the way for, European history; viz., Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, and Persia. In this section, along the course of the historic stream, other nations which exercised a powerful influence, attract special attention, especially the Phoenicians and the Hebrews. All these Oriental peoples are so connected together that they stand in history as the _Earliest Group of Nations_. The historic narrative must be so shaped as to describe them in part singly, but, at the same time, in their mutual relations. Ancient history, from an _ethnographical_ point of view, would embrace two general divisions,--Eastern peoples and Western peoples. The first would comprise Egyptians (Hamitic); Jews, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Lydians (Semitic); Hindus, Bactrians, Medes, Persians (Aryan); Parthians, Chinese, Japanese. The second would include Celts, Britons, _Greeks_, _Romans_, Teutons (Aryan). (Ploetz, _Universal History_, p. 1.) From a _geographical_ point of view, ancient history would fall into three general divisions: I. Asia, including (1) India, (2) China (with Japan), (3) Babylonia and Assyria, (4) Phoenicia, (5) Palestine, (6) Media and Persia. II. Africa, including (1) Egypt, (2) Carthage. III. Europe including (1) Greece, with its states and colonies; (2) Italy. DIVISION I. ORIENTAL HISTORY. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Europe and Asia together form one vast continent, yet have a partial boundary between them in the Ural Mountains and River, and in the deep bed of the Caspian and Black seas. Asia, which extends from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific, and from the Arctic Sea to the Indian Ocean, embraces an immense plateau, stretching from the Black Sea to Corea. This plateau spreads like a fan as it advances eastward. It is traversed by chains of mountains, and bordered also by lofty mountains, of which the Himalayas is the principal range. From this girdle of mountains descend slopes which lead down into the lowlands. The great plateau is broken into two by the Hindu-Kush range. The eastern division, the extensive plateau of Central Asia, is bordered on the north by the barren plains of Siberia. In the lowlands on the east and south are included the fertile plains of Central China and of Hindustan. The plateau of eastern Asia has been the natural abode of nomad tribes, Tartars and Mongols, whose invading hosts have poured through the passes of the mountains into the inviting territories below. The plateau of western Asia, stretching westward from the Indus, is not so high as that of the east. It begins with the lofty tablelands of Iran, and extends, ordinarily at a less elevation, to the extremity of the continent. On the south lie the plains of Mesopotamia. Arabia is a low plateau of vast extent, connected by the plateau and mountains of Syria with the mountain region of Asia Minor. As might be expected, civilization sprang up in the alluvial valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus and the Ganges, and on the soil watered by the great rivers of China, the Hoang-Ho and the Yang-tse-Kiang. Egypt was looked on by the Ancients as a part of Asia. Its language was distinct from the languages of the African nations. The seat of its power and thrift was the valley of the Nile. The conflicts of the nations settled in the lowlands with the mountainous peoples, eager for spoil and conquest, are a characteristic feature of Oriental History. CHARACTER OF THE ASIATIC NATIONS.--Generalizations covering so wide a field are, of necessity, inexact. As a rule, in the oriental mind, the intuitive powers eclipse the severely rational and logical. Civilization--as, for example, in Egypt and China--attains to a certain grade, and is there petrified. Immobility belongs to the Eastern nations. Revolutions bring a change of masters, but leave character and customs unchanged. The sense of individuality has been less vivid, and freedom less understood or valued. Governments have taken the despotic form. Law has had its seat in the ruler's sovereign will. The ruler has been regarded as clothed with divine authority. Before him the subject prostrates himself with groveling servility. RELIGION IN ASIA.--Asia is the cradle of the principal religions of the world. Here _monotheism_ appears, as in the faith of the Hebrews, and in the Mohammedan revival of it in a less pure form. Here have flourished _polytheistic_ systems, each with its throng of divinities. In the east, _pantheism_, dropping out of the conception of the Deity the element of personality, has found a cherished home. PRIESTHOODS.--Connected with the controlling influence of religion have arisen the priesthoods,--sometimes ruling as an aristocratic caste or class, sometimes dividing power with the reigning despot, to whom sacred attributes are ascribed. LITERATURE AND ART.--The Oriental nature has been mirrored in the literature and art of the East. Its products lack the measure, the grace and symmetry, and the human interest, which characterize the creations of the European mind. In the mechanical arts, invention and discovery push on progress to a certain point, then languish and die out. SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA. CHAPTER I. CHINA. China proper comprises less than half of the present Chinese Empire. It was called the land of Sinae or Seres by the ancients, and in the middle ages bore the name of Cathay. In the north of China are the broad alluvial plains, and in the north-eastern portion of the empire, an immense delta. The rest of the country is hilly and mountainous. The nucleus of the Chinese nation is thought to have been a band of immigrants, who are supposed by some to have started from the region south-east of the Caspian Sea, and to have crossed the head waters of the Oxus. They followed the course of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, having entered the country of their adoption from the north-west; and they planted themselves in the present province of Shan-se. Although nomads, they had some knowledge of astronomy, brought from their earlier homes; and they quickly made for themselves settled abodes. The native tribes by degrees were extirpated or driven out. The new-comers cultivated grain. They raised flax, out of which they wove garments. LEGENDARY ERA, TO THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123 B.C.).--The early annals of the Chinese, like those of other nations, are made up of myth and fable. The annalists placed the date of the creation at a point more than two millions of years prior to Confucius. The intervening period they sought to fill up with lines of dynasties. Preceding the Chow dynasty, the chroniclers give ten epochs. Prior to the eighth of these, there are no traces of authentic history. To _Yew-Chaou She_ (the Nest-having) is given the credit of teaching the people to make huts of the boughs of trees. Fire was discovered by _Suy-jin-She_ (the Fire-producer), his successor. Another ruler (_Fuh-he_), whose date is fixed at 2852 B.C., discovered iron. He also divided the people into classes. His successor invented the plow. These tales, perhaps, retain vague reminiscences of the methods in which useful inventions originated, or of the order in which they appeared. With _Yaou_ (2356 B.C.) we reach the period where the narratives which were compiled many centuries later by Confucius, begin their story. In the mass of fable, there is a larger infusion of historical fact, which, however, it is well-nigh hopeless to separate from the fiction that is mingled with it. In that golden age, few laws were required. We are told that the house-door could safely be left open. Yaou extended the empire: he established fairs and marts over the land. During the reign of _Shun_, who followed him, a tremendous inundation is said to have occurred; and _Yu_, called "the Great," was energetic in draining off the waters. He ascended the throne in 2205 B.C. His degenerate successors provoked a revolt and the introduction of a new dynasty, called the _Shang_ dynasty, whose first Emperor, _Tang_ (1760 B.C.), had a wise and beneficent reign. Tyranny and disaster followed under the later kings of this house; until finally _Woo-Wang_, the first sovereign of the Chow dynasty, acceded to the throne (1123 B.C.). THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123-255 B.C.).--The traditions now become decidedly more trustworthy, although still largely mixed with fable. _Woo-Wang_ was brave and upright. Under him a momentous change in government took place. By him the kingdom was divided into seventy-two feudal states. Internal divisions and struggles resulted from this new political system. The Tartars availed themselves of the weakened condition of the nation, to make predatory incursions. In this period of disorder and danger, _Confucius_, the great teacher of China, was born (551 B.C.). His father was a district magistrate, and died when the son was only three years old. He was trained and taught by his mother. When she died, he gave up all employments to mourn for her, during three years. His only occupation during this period was study. A grave and learned youth, he at length resolved to become an instructor of his countrymen in the ancient writings, to which he was devoted. He was regular in all his ways, and never ate or drank to excess. He gathered about him scholars; his fame increased; and, in 500 B.C., he was made magistrate of _Chung-tu_ by the sovereign, Duke _Ting_, an office which he justly and discreetly administered for three years. Sometimes persecuted, he compared himself to a dog driven from his home. "I have the fidelity of that animal, and I am treated like it. But what matters the ingratitude of men? They can not hinder me from doing all the good that has been appointed me. If my precepts are disregarded, I have the consolation of knowing in my own breast that I have faithfully performed my duty." Both by his literary works and by the lessons taught to his disciples, he laid the foundation of a most powerful and lasting influence over his countrymen. He died in 478 B.C., at the age of seventy-three. _Laou-tsze_, another famous thinker, was a few years older than Confucius. "Three precious things," he said, "I prize, and hold fast,--humility, compassion, and economy." _Mencius_, a celebrated teacher and reformer, who followed in the path of Confucius, after a long life died in 289 B.C. One of his doctrines was, that the nature of man is good, and that evil is owing to education and circumstances. One of his maxims was, that the people can be led aright, but can not be taught the reasons for the guidance to which they are subjected. DYNASTY OF TSIN (255-206 B.C.).--Reverting to the course of Chinese history, the next grand epoch is the enthronement of the Tsin dynasty, in the person of the ruler of one of the provinces, which, in the intestine strife among the feudal princes, gained the victory. This was in 255 B.C. In this line belongs the famous Emperor _Che Hwang-te_, who, in 246 B.C., at the age of thirteen years, succeeded to the crown. His palace in his capital, the modern Se-gan Foo, the edifices which he built elsewhere, the roads and canals constructed by him, excited wonder. He routed and drove out the Tartar invaders, and put down the rebellion of the feudal princes. He enlarged the kingdom nearly to the limits of modern China proper. For the protection of the northern frontier he began the "Great Wall," which he did not live to finish. It was finished 204 B.C., ten years after it was begun. When finished, it was not less than fifteen hundred miles in length. It would reach "from Philadelphia to Topeka, or from Portugal to Naples." The innovations and maxims of government of Che Hwang-te were offensive to the scholars and the conservative class, who pointed the people to the heroes of the feudal days and to the glories of the past. For this reason, the monarch commanded that all books having reference to the history of the empire should be destroyed. He would efface the recollection of the old times. He would not allow his system to be undermined by tradition. The decree was obeyed, although hidden copies of many of the ancient writings were undoubtedly preserved. Numerous scholars were buried alive. His death, in 210 B.C., was followed by disturbances, growing out of the disaffection of the higher classes. In the civil war that ensued, his dynasty was subverted. The throne was next held by THE HAN RULERS (206 B.C.-22l A.D.).--Their sway, which lasted for four hundred years, covers a brilliant period in the Chinese annals. During the reign of _Ming-te_, 65 A.D., a deputation was sent to India, to obtain the sacred writings and authorized teachers of the Buddhistic religion, which had begun to spread among the Chinese. The power of the feudal lords was reduced. Northern Corea was conquered, and the bounds of the empire extended on the west as far as Russian Turkestan, In this period, there was a marked revival of learning and authorship. Then lived a famous public officer, _Yang Chên_, who, when asked to take a bribe, and assured that no one would know it, answered, "How so? Heaven would know, Earth would know, you would know, and I should know." Under this dynasty, a custom of burying slaves with the dead was abolished. BEGINNING IN 221 A.D., there followed the "era of the three kingdoms." It was an age of martial prowess, civil war, and bloodshed. This long period of division was interrupted in 265 A.D. by a re-union of the greater part of the empire for a brief period. But discord soon sprang up; and it was not until 590 A.D. that unity and order were restored by _Yang-Kian_, who founded the dynasty, named from his local dominion, _Suy_. RELIGION IN CHINA.--The ancient religion of China was polytheistic. The supreme divinity was called _Tien_ or _Shang-ti_. Tien signifies Heaven. Was Heaven, or Shang-ti--or the Lord--the visible heaven, the expanse above, clothed with the attribute of personality? This has been, and still is, the prevailing opinion of missionaries and scholars. Dr. _Legge_, however, holds that Tien is the lord of the heavens, a power above the visible firmament; and thus finds monotheism as the basis of the Chinese religious creed. The prevailing religions of China are three,--_Buddhism_ (which in its original form was brought in from India in the first century of the Christian era), _Confucianism_, and _Taouism_. It may be observed, that, in all these systems, there is but a vague sense of personality as inhering in the heavenly powers, in comparison with the creeds in vogue among heathen nations generally. Another fact to be noted is, that, in Chinese worship, the veneration for ancestors, a feeling inbred in the Chinese mind, is a very prominent and pervading element. Confucius did not profess to reveal things supernatural. His teaching is made up of moral and political maxims. He builds on the past, and always inculcates reverence for the fathers and for what has been. There is much wise counsel to parents and to rulers. His morality reaches its acme in the Golden Rule, which he gives, however, only in its negative relation: "Do not unto others what you would not that others should do unto you." Laou-tsze is a more speculative and mystical thinker. In his moral aphorisms, he approaches the theory of the ancient Stoics. TEH--i.e., virtue--is lauded. Teh proceeds from TAO. To explain what the Chinese sage means by Tao,--a word that signifies the "way,"--is a puzzle for commentators and inquirers. From Tao all things originate: they conform to Tao, and to Tao they return. There are noble maxims in Laou-tsze,--precepts enjoining compassion, and condemning the requital of evil with evil. Taouism is a type of religion which traces itself to the teaching of Laou-tsze. That teaching became mixed with wild speculations. Then certain Buddhistic rites and tenets were added to it. The result, finally, was a compound of knavery and superstition. Taouism is at once mystical and rationalistic in its tone. LITERATURE IN CHINA.--The Chinese language was crystallized, in the written form, in the monosyllabic stage of its development. Beginning in hieroglyphs, literal pictures of objects, and having no alphabet, it has so multiplied its characters and combinations of characters as to put great hindrances in the way of the acquisition of it. The utter absence of inflection may have crippled the development of poetry and of the drama, for which the Chinese have a natural taste. In these departments, Chinese productions do not rise above mediocrity. For this, however, the lack of imagination and of creative power is largely accountable. It is in the province of pure prose--as in historical narrations, topographical writings, such as geographies, and in the making of encyclopedias--that the Chinese have excelled. But the yoke of tradition has everywhere weighed heavily. In one sense, the Chinese have been a literary people. The system of competitive examinations for public offices has diffused through the nation a certain degree of book-learning; yet the masses have been kept in a state of ignorance. At the foundation of all learning are the "nine classics," which consist of five works, edited or written by Confucius, of which the "Shoo King," or Book of History, stands at the head, together with the four books written by his disciples and the disciples of Mencius. Great as have been the services of Confucius, his own slavish reverence for the past, so stamped upon his writings, has had the effect to cramp the development of the Chinese mind, and to fasten upon it the fetters of tradition. GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIZATION.--The government of China is "a patriarchal despotism." As father of his people, the king has absolute authority. The power of life and death is in his hand. Yet the right of revolution was taught by Confucius and Mencius, and the Chinese have not been slow to exercise it. The powers of the emperor are limited by ceremonial regulations, and by a body of precedents which are held sacred. He administers rule with the help of a privy council. Officers of every rank in the employ of the government constitute the aristocratic class of Mandarins, who are divided into different ranks. INVENTION.--Printing by wooden blocks was known in China as early as the sixth century A.D. Printing did not come into general use until the thirteenth century. The use of movable types, although devised, it is said, many centuries earlier, did not come into vogue until the seventeenth century. Gunpowder was used as early as 250 A.D., in the making of fire-crackers; but it was certainly as late as the middle of the twelfth century that it was first employed in war. The Chinese were early acquainted with the polarity of the loadstone, and used the compass in journeys by land long before that instrument was known in Europe. In various branches of manufactures,--as silk, porcelain, carved work in ivory, wood, and horn,--the Chinese, at least until a recent period, have been pre-eminent. In the mechanical arts their progress has been slow. Their crude implements of husbandry are in contrast with their exhibitions of skill in other directions. Although imitation long ago supplanted the activity of inventive talent, to China belongs the distinction of being a civilized land before the Christian nations of Europe had emerged into being. LITERATURE.--_The Middle Kingdom_, by S. WELLS WILLIAMS (2 vols.);_ Encycl. Brit.,_ Art. _China_ by Professor Douglas; Arts. _Confucius and Mencius_ by Dr. Legge; Legge,_ The Religions of China_; Richthofen, _China_(3 vols.); Giles, _Historic China, and Other Sketches_ (1882); Legge, _The Chinese Classics_; BOULGER, _History of China_ (1881-84); Thornton, _History of China_. JAPAN.--The authentic history of Japan belongs mainly in the modern period, since the tenth century A.D. The most ancient religion of Japan, designated by a term which means "the way of the gods," included a variety of objects of worship,--gods, deified men, the mikados, or chief rulers, regarded as "the sons of heaven," animals, plants, etc. Unquestioning obedience to the mikado was the primary religious duty. It was a state-religion. Buddhism, brought into the country in 552 A.D., spread, and became prevalent. The Japanese are a mixed race. Kiôto and the adjacent provinces are said to have been occupied by the conquerors. Prior to 660 B.C. we have no trustworthy history of the island. This is the date assigned by the Japanese to their hero, _Jimmu Tenno_, the first mikado, the founder of an unbroken line. For several centuries, however, the history is open to question. The tenth mikado, Sujin, is noted as a reformer, and promoter of civilization. An uncrowned princess, _Jingu-Kogo_ (201-269 A.D.), is famous for her military prowess. She suppressed a rebellion, and subdued Corea. _Ojin_, a celebrated warrior, is still worshiped as a god of war. The introduction of Chinese literature and civilization at this period, makes a turning-point in Japanese history. LITERATURE.--J. J. REIN, _Japan: Travels and Researches_, vol. I. (1881); E. J. Reed, _Japan_ (2 vols., 1880); Siebold, _Nippon_ (5 vols. 410, and plates); Kampfer, _History of Japan_ (2 vols. fol., 1728); _Encycl. Brit._, Art. _Japan_. CHAPTER II. INDIA. India is the central one of the three great peninsulas of Southern Asia. On the north is the mountainous region of the Himalayas, below which are the vast and fertile river plains, watered by the _Indus_, the _Ganges_, and other streams. On the south, separated from the Ganges by the Vindhyá range, is the hilly and mountainous tract called the Deccan. THE ARYAN INVADERS.--The history of India opens with glimpses of a struggle on the borders of the great rivers,--first of the Indus and then of the Ganges,--between an invading race, the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans from the north-west, and the dusky aborigines. These rude native tribes have left few relics but their tombs. Before they tenanted the soil, there dwelt upon it still earlier inhabitants, whose implements were of stone or bronze. The incoming people referred to above were of that Indo-European stock to which we belong. From their home, perhaps in central Asia, they moved in various directions. A part built up the Persian kingdom; another portion migrated farther, and were the progenitors of the Greek nation; and a third founded Rome. The Indian Aryans migrated southward from the headwaters of the Oxus at some time prior, doubtless, to 2000 B.C. Our knowledge of them is derived from their ancient sacred books, the _Vedas_; of these the oldest, the _Rig-Veda_, contains ten hundred and seventeen lyrics, chiefly addressed to the gods. Its contents were composed while the Aryans dwelt upon the Indus, and while they were on their way to the neighborhood of the Ganges. The Rig-Veda, therefore, exhibits this people in their earliest stage of religious and social development. They were herdsmen, but with a martial spirit, which enabled them by degrees to drive out the native tribes, and compel them to take refuge in the mountains on the north, or on the great southern plateau. Among them women were held in respect, and marriage was sacred. There are beautiful hymns written by ladies and queens. No such cruel custom as the burning of widows existed: it was of far later origin. They were acquainted with the metals. Among them were blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths, carpenters, and other artisans. They fought from chariots, but had not come to employ elephants in war. They were settled in villages and in towns. Mention is made of ships, or river-boats, as in use among them. They ate beef, and drank a sort of fermented beer made from the _soma_ plant. THE VEDIC RELIGION.--The early religion of the Indian Aryans was quite different from the system that grew up later among them. We do not find in it the dreamy pantheism that appears afterwards. It is cheerful in its tone, quite in contrast with the gloomy asceticism which is stamped on it in after times. The head of each family is priest in his own household. It is only the great tribal sacrifice which is offered by priests set apart for the service. The worship is polytheistic, but not without tendencies to monotheism. The principal divinities are the powers of nature. The deities (_deva_) were the heavenly or the shining ones. "It was the beautiful phenomenon of light which first and most powerfully swayed the Aryan mind." The chief gods were the Father-heaven; Indra, the god of thunder and of rain, from whom the refreshing showers descended; Varuna, the encompassing sky; and Agni, the god of fire. Among these _Indra_, from his beneficence, more and more attracted worship. _Soma_, too, was worshiped; soma being originally the intoxicating juice of a plant. _Brihaspati_, the lord of prayer, personifying the omnipresent power of prayer, was adored. Thirty-three gods in all were invoked. The bodies of the dead were consumed on the funeral-pile. The soul survived the body, but the later doctrine of transmigration was unknown. All the attributes of sovereign power and majesty were collected in _Varuna_. No one can fathom him, but he sees and knows all. He is the upholder of order; just, yet the dispenser of grace, and merciful to the penitent. Worship is made up of oblations and prayers. It must be sincere. The gods will not tolerate deceit. They require faith. Of the last things and the last times the Rig-Veda hardly speaks. The Vedic hymns have much to say of the origin of things, but little, except in the last book, of the final issues. There are four Vedas,--the _Rig-Veda_, which has the body of hymns; the _Yajur-Veda_, in which the prescribed formulas to be used in acts of sacrifice are collected; the _Sama-Veda_, containing the chants; and the _Atharva-Veda_, a collection of hymns, in part of a later date. Besides, each Veda contains, as a second part, one or more Brâhmanas, or prose treatises on the ceremonial system. In addition, there are theological works supplementary, and of later origin,--the intermediate _Aranyakas_, and the _Upanishads_, which are of a speculative cast. Not only is nature--mountains, rivers, trees, etc.--personified in the Vedas: the animals--as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow--are addressed in prayer. The sacrificial fire is deified in _Agni_, the sacrificial drink in _Soma_. Indra has for his body-guards the _Maruts_, gods of the storm and lightning. He is a warlike god, standing in his chariot, but also a beneficent giver of all good gifts. _Varuna_ is the god of the vast luminous heavens, in their serene majesty. _Indra_, on the other hand, represents the atmosphere in its active and militant energy. The number of the gods is variously given. In passages, they are said to be many thousands. RITES.--There is no hierarchy among the gods. But there is a tendency to confuse the attributes of the different divinities. Occasionally, for the time being, one eclipses all the rest, and is addressed as if all others were forgotten. There is sometimes a tendency to regard them as all one, under different names. But this tendency develops itself later. Offerings consisted of rice, cakes, soma, etc. Victims also were sacrificed, the horse especially; also the goat, the buffalo, and other animals. Sacrifice purchases the gifts and favor of the gods. It is an expression of gratitude and dependence. It has, moreover, a deep, mysterious energy of an almost magical character. THE ARYANS ON THE GANGES.--Later, but earlier than 1000 B.C., we find that the Aryan invaders have moved onward in their career of conquest, and have planted themselves on the plains of the Ganges. A marvelous transformation has taken place in their social constitution, their religion, and in their general spirit. The caste system has sprung up, of which there are few traces in the Rig-Veda. In the first or lowest of these distinct classes are the _Sudras_, or despised serfs, who are the subjugated aborigines; the second, or next higher, class is composed of the tillers of the soil, who are of a lower rank than the third, the warrior caste. These, in turn, fall below the _Brahmans_, or priests, who, as rites of worship grew more complicated, and superstition increased, gained, though not without a struggle, a complete ascendency. This marks the beginning of the sacerdotal era. The tendency of the farmer caste was to decrease, until, in modern times, in various provinces they are hardly found. The supremacy of the Brahmans was largely owing to their eminence as the great literary caste. They arose out of the families by whom the hymns had been composed, and who managed the tribal sacrifices. They alone understood the language of the hymns and the ritual. _Brahman_, in the earliest Veda, signifies a worshiper. BRAHMINICAL PANTHEISM.--The polytheism of the earlier type of religion was converted into pantheism. _Brahma_, the supreme being, is impersonal, the eternal source of all things, from which all finite beings--gods, nature, and men--emanate. It is by _emanation_,--an outflow analogous to that of a stream from its fountain, in distinction from _creation_, implying will and self-consciousness,--that all derived existences emerge into being. With this doctrine was connected the belief in the transmigration of souls. All animated beings, including plants as well as animals, partake of the universal life which has its origin and seat in Brahma. Alienation from Brahma, finite, individual being, is evil. To work the way back to Brahma is the great aim and hope. Absorption in Brahma, return to the primeval essence, is the supreme good. The sufferings of the present are the penalty of sins committed in a pre-existent state. If they are not purged away, the soul is condemned to be embodied again and again,--it may be, in some repulsive animal. This process of metempsychosis might be repeated far into the indefinite future. With the doctrine of Brahma and of transmigration was connected the feeling that all life is sacred. The Brahman spared even trees and plants from destruction. Pollution or defilement might be contracted in a great variety of ways. There grew out of these ideas of sin, rigorous penances, most painful forms of self-torment. It was only by practices of this sort that there was hope of avoiding the retribution so much dreaded. THE BRAHMINICAL CODES.--The principal of these codes is the _Laws of Manu_. Manu was imagined to be the first human being, conceived of as a sage. This code is a digest compiled by the priests at a date unknown, but comprising in it materials of a very high antiquity. Hence, while exhibiting Brahmanism in its maturer form, it affords glimpses of society at a much earlier date. A second code was compiled not earlier than the second century A.D. These codes present Hindu law under three heads: (1) domestic and civil rights and duties, (2) the administration of justice, (3) purification and penance. In truth, the codes prescribe regulations for every department of life. The obligations of kings, of Brahmans, and of every other class, are defined in detail. One motive that is kept in view is to set forth and fortify the special privileges of the Brahminical order. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BRAHMINS.--In process of time, commentaries on the Vedas were multiplied. Discord arose in the interpretation of the sacred books. Out of this debate and confusion there emerged, in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., several philosophical systems. These aimed to give peace to the soul by emancipating it from the bondage of matter, and by imparting a sense of independence of the body and of the external world. These old philosophies are preserved in the _Upanishads_, or Instructions. The main idea in these diverse systems--the _Sankhya_, the _Vedanta_, etc.--is, that the soul's notion of itself as separate from the supreme, impersonal being, is the fallen state. This duality must be overcome. Conscious of its identity with the Supreme, the soul enters into _yoga_, or the state of unison with the Infinite. He who is thus taken away from the illusions of sense, or the _yogin_, is free from the power of things perishable. Death brings a complete absorption into the source of all being. It is the bliss of personal extinction. This sort of philosophy attached great value to contemplation and self-renunciation. It led to a light esteem of ritual practices and ceremonies. BUDDHISM. The Brahminical system has not ceased to maintain its supremacy in India since the time when it was presented to view in the law-codes. But it has not escaped alteration and attack. New movements, religious and political, have appeared to modify its character. Of these, Buddhism is by far the most memorable. THE LIFE OF BUDDHA.--Of the life of Buddha we have only legendary information, where it is impossible to separate fact from romance. The date of his death was between 482 and 472 B.C. He was then old. He belonged to the family of Gautamas, who were said to be of the royal line of the Çâkyas, a clan having its seat about a hundred and thirty-seven miles north of Benares. The story is, that, brought up in luxury, and destined to reign, he was so struck with the miseries of mankind, that, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his parents, his young wife, and an only son, and retired to a solitary life to meditate upon the cause of human suffering. From Brahminical teachers he could obtain no solution of the problem. But after seven years of meditation and struggle, during which sore temptations to return to a life of sense and of ease were successfully resisted, he attained to truth and to peace. For forty-four years after this he is said to have promulgated his doctrine, gathering about him disciples, whom he charged with the duty of spreading it abroad. THE BUDDHISTIC DOCTRINE.--Buddhism was not a distinct revolt against the reigning system of religion. Buddha left theology to the Brahmans. Indra, Agni, and the other divinities, and the services rendered to them, he left untouched. Being an anchorite, he was not required to concern himself with the rites and observances in which others took part. His aim was practical. His doctrine, though resting on a theoretical basis, was propounded simply as a way of salvation from the burdens that oppressed the souls of men. Nor did he undertake a warfare against caste. The blessing of deliverance from the woes of life he opened to all without distinction. This was the limit of his opposition to caste. THE ROAD TO NIRVANA.--Buddha taught, (1) that existence is always attended with misery; (2) that all modes of misery result from passion, or desire unsatisfied; (3) that desire must be quenched; (4) that there are four steps in doing this, and thus of arriving at NIRVANA, which is the state in which self is lost and absorbed, and vanishes from being. These four ways are (1) the awakening to a perception of the nature and cause of evil, as thus defined; (2) the consequent quenching of impure and revengeful feelings; (3) the stifling of all other evil desires, also riddance from ignorance, doubt, heresy, unkindliness, and vexation; (4) the entrance into Nirvana, sooner or later, after death. The great boon which Buddha held out was escape from the horrors of transmigration. He attributed to the soul no substantial existence. It is the _Karma_, or another being, the successor of one who dies, the result and effect of all that he was, who re-appears in case of transmigration. Buddhism involved atheism, and the denial of personal immortality, or, where this last tenet was not explicitly denied, uncertainty and indifference respecting it. On the foundation of Buddha's teaching, there grew up a vast system of monasticism, with ascetic usages not less burdensome than the yoke of caste. The attractive feature of Buddhism was its moral precepts. These were chiefly an inculcation of chastity, patience, and compassion; the unresisting endurance of all ills; sympathy and efficient help for all men. DEIFICATION OF BUDDHA.--By the pupils of Buddha he was glorified. He was placed among the Brahminical gods, by whom he was served. A multitude of cloisters were erected in his honor, in which his relics were believed to be preserved. On the basis of the simpler doctrine and precepts of the founder, there accumulated a mass of superstitious beliefs and observances. THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM.--After the death of Buddha, it is said that his disciples, to the number of five hundred, assembled, and divided his teaching into three branches,--his own words, his rules of discipline, and his system of doctrine. During the next two centuries Buddhism spread over northern India. One of the most conspicuous agents in its diffusion was _Asoka_, the king of Behar, who was converted to the Buddhistic faith, and published its tenets throughout India. His edicts, in which they were set forth, were engraved on rocks and pillars and in caves. He organized missionary efforts among the aborigines, using only peaceful means, and combining the healing of disease, and other forms of philanthropy, with preaching. He carried the Buddhistic faith as far as _Ceylon_. It spread over _Burmah_ (450 A.D.). _Siam_ was converted (638 A.D.), and _Java_ between the fifth and seventh centuries of our era. Through Central Asia the Buddhistic missionaries passed into _China_ in the second century B.C., and Buddhism became an established system there as early as 65 A.D. At present, this religion numbers among its professed adherents more than a third of the human race. THE BRAHMINICAL RE-ACTION.--In India Buddhism did not supplant the old religion. The Brahmans modified their system. They made their theology more plain to the popular apprehension. They took up Buddhistic speculations into their system. But they rendered their ceremonial practices more complex and more burdensome. Their ascetic rule grew to be more exacting and oppressive. In diffusing and making popular their system, customs, like the burning of widows, were introduced, which were not known in previous times. The divinities, _Brahma_, the author of all things, _Vishnu_ the preserver, and _Siva_ the destroyer, were brought into a relation to one another, as a sort of triad. Successive incarnations of Vishnu became an article of the creed, _Krishna_ being one of his incarnate names. For centuries Brahmanism and Buddhism existed together. Gradually Buddhism decayed, and melted into the older system; helping to modify its character, and thus to give rise to modern Hinduism. For ten centuries Buddhism, with multitudinous adherents abroad, has had no existence in the land of its birth. THE GREEK-ROMAN PERIOD.--In 327 B.C., _Alexander the Great_ advanced in his victorious career as far as India, entered the Punjab, which was then divided among petty kingdoms, and defeated one of the kings, _Porus_, who disputed the passage of the river Jhelum. The heat of the climate and the reluctance of his troops caused the Macedonian invader to turn back from his original design of penetrating to the Ganges. Near the confluence of the five rivers he built a town, Alexandria. He founded, also, other towns, established alliances, and left garrisons. On the death of Alexander (323 B.C.) and the division of his empire, Bactria and India fell to the lot of Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy. About this time a new kingdom grew up in the valley of the Ganges, under the auspices of _Chandra Gupti_, a native. After various conflicts, Seleucus ceded the Greek settlements in the Punjab to this prince, to whom he gave his daughter in marriage. The successors of Seleucus sent Græco-Bactrian expeditions into India. Thus Greek science and Greek art exerted a perceptible influence in Hindustan. During the first six centuries of the Christian era, Scythian hordes poured down into northern India. They were stoutly resisted, but effected settlements, and made conquests. The events as well as the dates of the long struggle are obscure. The non-Aryan races of India, both on the north and on the south of the Ganges, many of whom received the Buddhistic faith, were not without a marked influence--the precise lines of which it is difficult to trace--upon the history and life of India during the period of Greek and Scythic occupation and warfare. The _Dravidian_ people in southern India, made up of non-Aryans, number at present forty-six millions. LITERATURE.--Mill's _History of India_ (Wilson's edition, 9 vols.); MONIER WILLIAMS, _Indian Wisdom_; Max Müller's _History of Sanskrit Literature_; EARTH'S _The Religions of India_, 1882; _Encycl. Brit._, Arts. _India, Brahmanism, Buddhism_. SECTION II. THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS. CHAPTER I. EGYPT. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.--When the curtain that hides the far distant past is lifted, we find in the valley of the Nile a people of a dark color, tinged with red, and a peculiar physiognomy, who had long existed there. Of their beginnings, there is no record. It is not likely that they came down the river from the south, as some have thought; more probably they were of Asiatic origin. Their language, though it certainly shows affinities with the Semitic tongues in its grammar, is utterly dissimilar in its vocabulary: its modern descendant is the Coptic, no longer a spoken dialect. The Egyptians were of the Caucasian variety, but not white like the Lybians on the west. On the east were tribes of a yellowish complexion and various lineage, belonging to the numerous people whom the Egyptians designated as _Amu_. On the south, in what was called _Ethiopia_, was a negro people; and, also beyond them and eastward, a dusky race, of totally different origin, a branch of the widely diffused _Cushites_. THE NILE: DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY.--Egypt (styled by its ancient inhabitants, from the color of the soil deposited by the Nile, _Kem_ or the Black Land, and by the Hebrews called _Mizraim_) is the creation of the great river. "Egypt," says Herodotus, "is the gift of the Nile;" and this is not only true, as the historian meant it, physically, because it is the Nile that rescued the land from the arid waste by which it is bordered; but the course of Egyptian history--the occupations, habits, and religion of the people--was largely determined by the characteristics of the river. The sources of the Nile have had in all ages the fascination of mystery, and have been a fruitful theme for conjecture. It was reserved for modern explorers to ascertain that it takes its rise in equatorial Africa, in the two great lakes, the _Albert_ and _Victoria Nyanzas_. From that region, fed by few tributaries, it flows to the Mediterranean, a distance of two thousand miles, but breaks, as it nears the sea, into two main and several minor arms. These spread fruitfulness over the broad plain called, from its shape, the _Delta._ Above the Delta the fringe of productive land has a width of only a few miles on either side of the stream. Its fertility is due to the yearly inundation which, as the effect of the rainfall of Abyssinia, begins early in July, and terminates in November, when the river, having slowly risen in the interval to an average height of twenty-three or twenty-four feet, reaches in its gradual descent the ordinary level. This narrow belt of territory, annually enriched with a layer of fertile mud, is in striking contrast with the barren regions, parched by the sun, on either side, with the long chain of Arabian mountains that adjoin it on the east, and with the low hills of the Lybian desert on the west. By dikes, canals, and reservoirs, the beneficent river from the most ancient times has been made to irrigate the land above, where are the towns and dwellings of the people, and thus to extend and keep up its unrivaled fertility. The country of old was divided into two parts,--_Upper Egypt,_ as it is now called, with _Thebes_ for its principal city, extending from the first cataract, near _Syene,_ to the Memphian district; and _Lower Egypt,_ embracing the rest of the country on the north, including the Delta. The two divisions were marked by differences of dialect and of customs. The country was further divided into _nomes,_ or districts, about forty in all, but varying in number at different times. They were parted from one another by boundary stones. Each had its own civil organization, a capital, and a center of worship. EARLY CULTURE.--At a far remote day, there existed in Lower Egypt an advanced type of culture. Sepulchers, with their inscriptions and sculptures, were made of so solid material that they have remained to testify to this fact. When the pyramids were built, mechanical skill was highly developed, Egyptian art had reached a point beyond which it scarcely advanced, and the administration of government had attained substantially to the form in which it continued to exist. The use of writing, the division of the year, the beginnings of the sciences and of literature, are found in this earliest period. Egyptian culture, as far as we can determine, was not borrowed. It was a native product. The earliest period was the period of most growth. The prevailing tendency was to crystallize all arts and customs into definite, established forms, and to subject every thing to fixed rules. The desire to preserve what had been gained overmastered the impulses to progress: individuality and enterprise were blighted by an excessive spirit of conservatism. Moreover, the culture of the Egyptians never disengaged itself from its connection with every-day practical needs, or the material spirit that lay at its root. They did not, like the Greeks, soar into the atmosphere of theoretical science and speculation. They did not break loose from the fetters of tradition. THE HIEROGLYPHICS.--We owe our knowledge of ancient Egypt chiefly to hieroglyphical writing. The hieroglyphs, except those denoting numbers, were pictures of objects. The writing is of three kinds. The _first_, the hieroglyphical, is composed of literal pictures, as a circle, O, for the sun, a curved line for the moon, a pointed oval for the mouth. The _second_ sort of characters, the hieratic, and the _third_, the demotic, are curtailed pictures, which can thus be written more rapidly. They are seldom seen on the monuments, but are the writing generally found on the papyrus rolls or manuscripts. They are written from right to left. The hieroglyphs proper may be written either way, or in a perpendicular line. In the demotic, or people's writing, the characters are somewhat more curtailed, or abridged, than in the hieratic, or priestly, style. There were four methods of using the hieroglyphics in historical times. _First_, there were the primary, representational characters, the literal pictures. _Secondly_, the characters were used figuratively, as symbols. Thus a circle, O, meant not only the sun, but also "day"; the crescent denoted not only the moon, but also "a month;" a pen and inkstand signified "writing," etc. So one object was substituted for another analogous to it,--as the picture of a boot in a trap, which stood for "deceit." A conventional emblem, too, might represent the object. Thus, the hawk denoted the sun, two water-plants meant Upper and Lower Egypt. _Thirdly_, hieroglyphics were used as determinatives. That is, an object would be denoted by letters (in a way that we shall soon explain), and a picture be added _to determine_, or make clear, what was meant. After proper names, they designated the sex; after the names of other classes, as animals, they specified the particular genus. _Fourthly_, the bulk of the hieroglyphs are phonetic. They stand for sounds. The picture stood for the initial sound of the name of the object depicted. Thus the picture of an eagle, _akhôm_, represented "A." Unfortunately, numerous objects were employed for a like purpose, to indicate the same sound. Hence the number of characters was multiplied. The whole number of signs used in writing is not less than nine hundred or a thousand. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone--a large black slab of stone--with an identical inscription in hieroglyphics, in demotic and in Greek, furnished to _Champollion_ (1810) and to _Young_ the clew to the deciphering of the Egyptian writing, and thus the key to the sense of the monumental inscriptions. The Egyptian manuscripts were made of the pith of the byblus plant, cut into strips. These were laid side by side horizontally, with another layer of strips across them; the two layers being united by paste, and subjected to a heavy pressure. The Egyptians wrote with a reed, using black and red ink. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.--These are (1) the inscriptions on the monuments. These, it must be remembered, are commonly in praise of the departed, and of their achievements. (2) The list of kings in the Turin papyrus, a very important Egyptian manuscript, discovered by Champollion. (3) _Manetho_. An Egyptian priest, he wrote, about 250 B.C., a history. Only his lists of dynasties are preserved as given in an Armenian version of _Eusebius_, a writer of the fourth century, and in _George Syncellus_, a writer of the eighth century, who professed to embody the statements of Eusebius and of another author, _Julius Africanus_, probably of the second century, who had also quoted the lists of Manetho. Manetho is of great importance; but we do not know accurately what his original text was, it being so differently reported. His details frequently clash with the monuments. Moreover, the method adopted by him in making his lists is, in essential points, subject to doubt. (4) The Greek historians. _Herodotus_ had visited Egypt (between 460 and 450 B.C.), and conferred with Egyptian priests. _Diodorus_, also, in the time of Julius Caesar, had visited Egypt. He is largely a copyist of Herodotus. (5) The Old Testament. Here we have many instructive references to Egypt. But, until Rehoboam, the kings of Egypt have in the Scriptures the general name of _Pharaoh_. Hence it is not always easy to identify them with corresponding kings on the Egyptian lists. CHRONOLOGY.--The date of the beginning of the first dynasty of Egyptian rulers is a controverted point; there are advocates of a longer and of a shorter chronology. The data are not sufficient to settle accurately the questions in dispute. Some judicious scholars put the beginning of _the first dynasty_ as early as 5000 B.C.; others have wished to bring it down even lower than 3000 B.C. Egyptian history, prior to the Persian conquest (525 B.C.), divides itself into three sections,--the _Old Empire_, having its seat at Memphis; the _Middle Empire_, following upon a period of strife and division, and embracing the rule of foreign invaders, _the Hyksos;_ and the _New Empire_, the era of conquest, by foreign power, and of downfall. The expedition of Shishak, king of Egypt, against Rehoboam, is ascertained, from both Egyptian and Hebrew sources, to have been not earlier than 971 B.C., and within twenty-five years of that date. The nineteenth Egyptian dynasty began about the year 1350 B.C. The Middle Empire is thought by some to have commenced as early as 2200 B.C.; by others as late as 1720 B.C. When we go backward into the Old Empire, the sources of uncertainty are multiplied. The main difficulty is to determine whether the lists of dynasties are _consecutive_ throughout, or in part _contemporary_. One class of scholars place the date of the first historic king, _Menes_, two or three thousand years earlier than the point assigned by the other class! The date of Menes given by _Böckh_ is 5702 B.C.; by _Lenormant_, 5004 B.C.; by _Brugsch_, 4455 B.C.; by _Lepsius_, 3852 B.C.; by _Bunsen_, 3623 or 3059 B.C.; _E. Meyer_ makes 3180 B.C. the lowest possible date for Menes; 3233 B.C. is the date assigned by _Duncker_. On the contrary, _R. S. Poole_ gives 2717 B.C.; _Wilkinson_, 2691 B.C.; and _G. Rawlinson_, between 2450 and 2250 B.C. There are no means of fully determining the controversy, as Rawlinson has shown (_History of Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii., p. 19). It appears to be well ascertained that Egyptian civilization was in being at least as far back as about 4000 B.C. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM.--The bulk of the people were farmers and shepherds, indisposed to war. The land was owned in large estates by the nobles, who were possessed of multitudes of serfs and of cattle. They had in their service, also, artisans, oarsmen, and traffickers. The centers of industry were the numerous cities. Here the nobles had their mansions, and the gods their temples with retinues of priests. But the Nomes had each its particular jurisdiction. The traces of two original communities are preserved in the mythological legends and in the titles of the kings. The oldest inscriptions discover to us a systematic organization of the state. The king is supreme: under him are the rulers of the two halves of the kingdom. He creates the army, and appoints its generals. The whole strength of the kingdom is given to him for the erection of the temples which he raises to the gods, or of the stupendous pyramid which is to form his sepulcher. The nobility make up his court; from them he selects his chief officers of state,--his secretary, his treasurer, his inspector of quarries, etc. The princes and princesses are educated in connection with the children of the highest nobles. A body-guard protects the monarch: he shows himself to the people only in stately processions. All who approach him prostrate themselves at his feet. He is the descendant of the gods. The Pharaohs are even looked upon as gods incarnate. They are clothed with all power on earth. When they die, they go to the gods; and rites of worship are instituted for them. That there was a well-ordered and efficient civil administration admits of no doubt. Whether there existed a thrifty middle class or not we can not decide. The tendency was for the child to follow the vocation of the parent, but there were no rigid barriers of caste. Not until the New Empire, was there an attempt to build up such a wall even about the priesthood. THE RELIGION.--With the Egyptians, religion was a matter of supreme and absorbing interest. There was a popular religion; and there arose early, in connection with it, an esoteric or secret doctrine relative to the gods and to the legends respecting them,--a lore that pertained especially to the priesthood. Moreover, while the religious system, from the earliest date, is polytheistic, we have proof that the educated class, sooner or later, put a monotheistic interpretation upon it, and believed in one supreme deity, of whom all the particular gods were so many forms and manifestations, or that one being under different names. Whether this more elevated faith preceded the reigning system, or was a later offspring of it, is a matter of dispute. For a long period the two co-existed, and without collision. The great divinities of Egypt are pre-eminently gods of light. They are associated with the SUN. With the agency of that luminary, with his rising and setting, they stand in a close relation. All Egypt worships the sun under the names of _Ra_ and _Horus_. Horus is the adversary of _Seth_ (called _Typhon_ by the Greeks), the god of darkness, and is born anew every morning to attack and conquer him. In honor of Ra, the lofty obelisks, or symbols of the sun's rays, are erected, each of which has its own name and priests. With the sun-gods are joined the goddesses of the heavens,--_Nut_, _Hather_, _Isis_, and others. But _Osiris_ became the most famous sun-god. His worship was originally at Abydos and Busiris. At length his cult spread over the whole land. In the legend, he is murdered by Seth; but Horus is his avenger. Horus conquers the power of darkness. Henceforward Osiris reigns in the kingdom of the West, the home of the dead. He is the sun in the realm of the shades. He receives the dead, is their protector, and the judge whose final award is blessedness or perpetual misery. The departed, if their lives have not been wicked, become one with him. They are each of them called by his name. To Osiris, all sepulchral inscriptions are addressed. His career, with the victory of the power of darkness over him, and his glorious revival in the regions of the West, typifies human life and destiny. The principal god at Memphis is _Ptah_, the primal divinity, the former of heaven and earth; yet, perhaps, a god of light, since he is styled by the Greeks, _Hephaestus_. At Thebes, _Ammon_ was revered as the king of the gods: he shared in the properties of the sun. _Thoth_ is the chief moon-god, who presides over the reckoning of time. He is the god of letters and of the arts, the author of sacred books. The Nile is worshiped under the name of _Hapi_, being figured as a man with pendent breasts, an emblem of the fertility of the river. The gods were often connected in triads, there being in each a father, a mother, and a son. To bring to them the right offerings, and to repeat the right formulas, was a matter of momentous concern. Homage was directed to the material objects with which the activity of the god was thought to be connected, and in which he was believed to be present. All nature was full of deities. There were sacred trees, stones, utensils. Above all, animals, in their mysterious life, were identified with the divinities. Worship was offered to the crocodile, the cat, the bull, etc. In the temples these creatures were carefully tended and obsequiously served. EMBALMING.--Believing that the soul survives death, the Egyptians linked its weal with the preservation of the body, from which they could not conceive its destiny to be wholly dissevered. Thus arose the universal practice of embalming, and of presenting, at intervals, offerings of food and drink to the departed. The tomb contains a room for sacred services to the dead. The most ancient structures are sepulchers. They were the germ of the pyramid, in which rested the sarcophagus of the king. RELIGION AND MORALITY.--The leading gods were held to be the makers of the world and of men, the givers of good, the rulers and disposers of all things. Morality was not separated from religion. The gods punished unrighteousness and inhumanity. In the age of the pyramid-builders, family life was not wanting in purity; the wife and mother was held in respect: monogamy prevailed. _Ma-t_ was the goddess of truth: in the myth of Osiris, it is in her hall that the dead are judged. THE PRIESTS.--The priests are the guardians of religious rites. They are acquainted with the origin and import of them. Their knowledge is communicated only to select believers. It was a body of traditions, guarded as a mysterious treasure. But the priests, certainly until a late period, do not control the king. The civil authority is uppermost. LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.--The most important Egyptian book that has come down to us is the _Book of the Dead._ It relates, in a mystical strain, the adventures of the soul after death, and explains how, by reciting the names and titles of numberless gods, and by means of other theological knowledge, the soul can make its way to the hall of Osiris. It is a monument of the pedantic and punctilious formalism of the Egyptian ritual. Most of the papyri that have been preserved are of a religious character. There are songs not void of beauty. The moral writings are of a decidedly higher grade. Works of fiction are constructed with considerable skill, and are sometimes not wanting in humor. Some of the hymns are not destitute of merit. It can not be doubted that there were important mathematical writings. Astronomical observations were very early made. In medicine, we have writings which prove that considerable proficiency was attained in this department. But here, as in other branches, the spirit was empirical rather than scientific in the higher sense; and the result was to petrify knowledge in an unalterable form. At length rules of medical treatment, with specific remedies, were definitely settled, from which it was a crime against the state to deviate. THE OLD EMPIRE (to about 2100 B.C.).--_Senoferu,_ who belongs to the third dynasty, is the first king who has left behind him a monumental inscription. A rock-tablet in the peninsula of Sinai gives him the title of conqueror. By some, the pyramid of Meydoun, built in three distinct stages to a height of 125 feet, is ascribed to him, and is believed to be his sepulcher. At Saccarah is a pyramid of like form, 200 feet in height. _Khufu,_ the Cheops of Herodotus, was the builder of the "Great Pyramid" of Ghizeh, the largest and loftiest building on earth. Its original perpendicular height was not less than 480 feet, the length of its side 764 feet, and the area covered by it more than thirteen acres. Near it are the small pyramids, which were the sepulchers of his wives and other relatives. The statues of _Khafra_ remain, and the wooden mummy-case of _Menkaura,_ with the myth of Osiris recorded on it. These were the builders of the two other most celebrated pyramids, the second and the third. With the long reign of _Unas_ closes the first era in Egyptian history. His unfinished pyramid, built of huge blocks of limestone, indicates that he died too soon to complete it. From this date, back to the epoch of _Senoferu_, are included nearly three centuries. In this period of prevalent peace, art had the opportunity to develop. The spirit of progress in this department had not yet been cramped by the "hieratic canon," the fixed rules set for artistic labor. There is evidence of considerable knowledge in anatomy and medicine. The myth of Osiris expanded, and his worship spread. With the sixth dynasty a new epoch begins. The most powerful monarch in this series is _Pepi_. He levied armies, conquered the negroes of Nubia, and waged war against the nomads of the eastern desert. The interval from the sixth to the tenth dynasty was marked by usurpations and insurrections. The district governors sought to make themselves independent. Monarchs rose and fell. Syrian invaders appear to have seized the occasion to attack the country. _Heliopolis_, with _Tum_ for its sun-god, is the center of the new symbolical lore of the priesthood. Power is transferred to _Thebes_, and _Ammon_ becomes the embodiment of the monotheistic conception, the supreme deity. The Theban ruling-house gradually extended its supremacy over the land. The kings of the twelfth dynasty have left their inscriptions everywhere, and of several of them gigantic portrait-statues remain. _Amenemhat I._ and his successors are prosperous sovereigns. They carry on a lively intercourse of trade with the small states of Syria, reaching possibly to Babylon. Under the twelfth dynasty, the valley of the upper Nile was conquered. _Usurtasen III._, in after times, was revered as the subduer of the Nubian land. By monarchs of this epoch, vast structures, like the temple of Ammon at Thebes and the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, were erected. _Amenemhat III._ built the immense artificial reservoir, Lake Moeris, to receive and dispense the waters of the Nile. Under the twelfth dynasty is the blossoming period of literature. The carving of hieroglyphics and the execution of the details of art reach their perfection. It is the culminating point of Egyptian culture. THE MIDDLE EMPIRE (FROM ABOUT 2100 TO 1600 B.C.).--The season of prosperity under the twelfth dynasty was followed by anarchy and the downfall of the Theban rule. According to _Manetho_, it was under a king named _Timaos_ that a horde of invaders--the _Hyksos_, or _"shepherds"_--came in from the north, devastated the country, and made themselves its rulers. They were probably of Semitic descent, but nothing more is known as to their origin. In connection with them, Semitic, and in particular Canaanite, elements penetrated into Egypt, and left their traces in its language. The residence of their kings was _Tanis_, on the eastern Delta, a splendid city, which they still more adorned. They conquered Memphis, but their power was not permanently established in Lower Egypt. The duration of their control was a number of centuries,--how many can only be conjectured. It is believed by some scholars that either _Apepi,_ or _Nub_, kings of the Hyksos line, was the sovereign who made _Joseph_ his prime minister, and invited his family to settle in the land of Goshen. The elevation of a foreigner and a Semite to an exalted office is thought to be less improbable in connection with a Semitic dynasty. The New Empire (from 1600 to 525 B.C.).--The expulsion of the Hyksos was effected by _Aahmes I_., first king of the eighteenth dynasty. It was accomplished, however, not all at once, but gradually. From this event Egypt enters on a new stage in its career. It becomes a military, an aggressive, and a conquering state. Notwithstanding the enormous sacrifice of life that must have been involved in the erection of pyramids and in other public works, the Egyptians had not been a cruel people: compared with most Semitic peoples, they had been disposed to peace. But now a martial spirit is evoked. A military class arises. Wars for plunder and conquest ensue. The use of horses in battle is a new and significant fact. The character of the people changes for the worse. The priestly class become more compact and domineering. Temples are the principal edifices, in the room of massive sepulchers. Under _Thothmes I_. and his successors, especially _Thothmes III_., wars were successfully waged against the Syrians, and against the Ethiopians on the south. The palaces and temples of Thebes, including the gigantic structures at _Karnak_ and _Luxor_, are witnesses to the grandeur of these monarchs. The Egyptian arms were carried through Syria, and as far even as Nineveh. During the reigns of _Amenophis III_. and _Amenophis IV_., that is, in the latter half of the fifteenth century B.C., the _Amarna Letters_ (see p. 44) were written. Under the _Ramessides_, the conquests of Egypt reached their farthest limit. RAMSES II.--Ramses II., or Ramses the Great (1340-1273 B.C.),--who was called by the Greeks Sesostris, a name with which they linked many fabulous narratives,--is the most brilliant personage in Egyptian history. He is the first of the renowned conquerors, the forerunner of the Alexanders and Napoleons. His monuments are scattered over all Egypt. In his childhood he was associated on the throne with his father, himself a magnificent monarch, _Seti I_. In the seventh year of the sole reign of the son he had to encounter a formidable confederacy under the lead of the Syrian _Hittites_--the "Khita"--in the north-east, a powerful nation. How he saved himself by his personal valor, on the field of _Kadesh_, is celebrated in the Egyptian Iliad, the heroic poem of _Pentaur_. A subsequent treaty with this people is one of the most precious memorials of his reign. THE HITTITES.--Recent explorations have shown that the _Hittites_ of Scripture were families, or smaller communities, in Palestine, of a people whose proper seat was in northern Syria, especially the country lying along the Orontes; their territory being bounded on the east by the Euphrates, and extending westward into the Taurus Mountains. In one place they are spoken of as distant (Judg. i. 26). The "Khita" of the Egyptians, called "Khatti" by the Assyrians, were a civilized and powerful nation, whose sway was so extended that their outposts were at times on the western coast of Asia Minor. They were a non-Semitic people. The great victory of Ramses (1320 B.C.) was with difficulty won. The Hittites were also rivals of the Assyrians from an early period. At length Sargon captured their capital, _Carchemish_ (717 B.C.), and broke down their power. Numerous Hittite inscriptions have been discovered, written in a hieroglyphic script which has not yet (1903) been deciphered. Subsequently we find _Ramses_ in _Galilee_, as it was called later: we find him storming the city of _Askalon_ in Philistia, and in various military expeditions, in which he brought home with him multitudes of captives. The mighty temples which he built at Abydos, Thebes, and Memphis, and the gorgeous palace, "the House of Ramses," south of Karnak, were in keeping with other displays of his energy and magnificence. THE BONDAGE OF THE ISRAELITES.--Ramses II. has been generally believed to be "the Pharaoh of the oppression," under whom the Hebrews suffered; and his son _Menephthah_, to be the Pharaoh under whom the exodus took place. Recent discoveries have rendered these conclusions very doubtful, however. It is also quite uncertain how long the Egyptian bondage lasted. According to the Hebrew Old Testament, its duration was 430 years; according to the _Septuagint_, or Greek version, half that period (as implied in Gal. iii. 17). To THE PERSIAN CONQUEST.--From about 1500 to 1300 B.C., Egypt was the foremost nation in culture, arts, and military prowess. Under the later kings bearing the name of Ramses, the empire began to decay. The Ethiopians in the south revolted, and set up an independent kingdom, _Meroe_, of which _Napata_ was the capital. _Shishak_ (961-940 B.C.) aspired to restore the Egyptian rule in the East. He marched into Judæa, and captured and plundered Jerusalem. He made _Rehoboam_, king of Judah, a tributary, and strengthened Jeroboam, the ally of Egypt. He even led his forces across the valley of the Jordan. At length (730 B.C.) the Ethiopians gained the upper hand in Egypt. Their three kings form the twenty-fifth dynasty. As the power of Egypt was on the wane, the power of Assyria was more and more in the ascendant. _Shabak_ joined hands with _Hoshea_, king of Israel, but was defeated by the Assyrians, under _Sargon II_., in a pitched battle at _Raphia_, in which the superiority of the Asiatic kingdom was evinced. Later (701 B.C.) _Sennacherib_ defeated an Egyptian army, sent for the relief of Ekron, and made _Hezekiah_ a tributary. _Tirhakah,_ the ally of Hezekiah, continued the struggle. His army was saved from overthrow by the disaster which happened to Sennacherib's host in the neighboring camp on the eve of battle. Twenty years later, he was vanquished by an invading army under the son and successor of Sennacherib, _Esarhaddon._ The rule of the Ethiopian dynasty was subverted. The Assyrians intrusted the government to twenty governors, of whom the most were natives. Of these governors, one, then king of Sais, _Psammeticus I._ (663-616 B.C.), in alliance with Gyges, king of Lydia, and with the aid of Carians, Phoenicians, and Lycians, cast off the Assyrian yoke, and became sole ruler of Egypt. This epoch is marked by the introduction of numerous foreigners into the country, and by the exertion of a powerful and lasting Greek influence. _Neku II._--the _Necho_ of Scripture--(610-594 B.C.), the son of Psammeticus I., defeated _Josiah,_ king of Judah, at _Megiddo_ (608 B.C.); and Josiah fell in the battle. But, advancing to _Carchemish_ by the Euphrates, Neku, in turn, was vanquished by _Nebuchadnezzar,_ king of Babylon, which had now become the formidable power. The defeat of Neku ended Egyptian rule in the East. _Apries_ (588 B.C.), the _Hophra_ of Scripture, was dethroned by a revolt of his own soldiers, in a war with the Greeks of Cyrene, and was succeeded by _Aahmes,_ or _Amasis_ (570-526), under whose auspices foreigners, and especially Greeks, acquired an augmented influence. Egypt had escaped from permanent subjection to Assyria or Babylon; but a new empire, the Persian Empire of Cyrus, was advancing on the path to universal dominion. _Cyrus_ was too busy with other undertakings to attack Egypt; but _Cambyses,_ his successor, led an army into that country; and, having defeated _Psammeticus III.,_ at the battle of _Pelusium,_ he made it a Persian province (525 B.C.). LITERATURE.--See the list on p. 16. 1. Works on Oriental History as a whole: DUNCKER'S _History of Antiquity._ It includes, also, Greece. Lenormant and Chevalier, _Manual of the Ancient History of the East_ (2 vols.); G. Rawlinson, _The Five Great Monarchies_ (3 vols.), _The Sixth Great Monarchy_ (Parthia), _The Seventh Great Monarchy_ (the Sassanidæ), _The Origin of Nations_ (1 vol.), _Manual of Ancient History_ (1 vol.), _Egypt and Babylon_ (1 vol.). LENORMANT, _The Beginnings of History_ (1 vol.); P. Smith, _The Ancient History of the East_ (1 vol.), _History of the World_ (_Ancient History_, 3 vols.); Maspero, _History of the Ancient Orient_ (3 vols.); Doublier, _Gesch. des Alterthums_ (from the cultural point of view, 1 vol.); E. Meyer, _Gesch. des Alterthums._ 2. Works on the History of Egypt. BRUGSCH-BEY, _History of Egypt under the Pharaohs_ (2 vols.); G. Rawlinson, _History of Ancient Egypt_ (2 vols.);, _Aperçu de l'Histoire d'Egypte_ (1864), and numerous other writings; WILKINSON, _Manners and Customs of Egypt_ (3 vols.); ERMAN, _Egypt_; Petrie, _History of Egypt_; Erman, _Egyptian Life_ (1894); Birch, _Records of the Past_ (translations of Egyptian and Assyrian Monuments, 11 vols.), _Egypt from the Earliest Times_; Perrot and Chipiez, _History of Art in Ancient Egypt_ (1883); FERGUSSON'S _History of Architecture_; the great illustrative works of the French _savans_ under Napoleon I.; the great illustrated works of Rossellini, and the works of Lepsius; the novels of Ebers, _The Sisters; Uarda; The Egyptian Princess_. CHAPTER II. ASSYRIA AND BABYLON. THE GEOGRAPHY.--Assyria and Babylonia were geographically connected. They were inhabited by the same race, and, for the greater part of their history, were under one government. Babylonia comprised the lower basin of the _Euphrates_ and _Tigris,_ while Assyria included the hilly region along the upper and middle Tigris; the boundary being where the two rivers, in their long progress from their sources in the mountains of Armenia, at length approach one another at a place about three hundred and fifty miles from their outlet in the Persian Gulf. Both streams, in particular the Euphrates, annually flooded the adjacent territory, and by canals and dams were made to add to its productiveness. The shores of the Euphrates, after its descent from the plateau to the plains, were fertile beyond measure. Here the date-palm, whose juice as well as fruit were so highly prized, flourished. Even now wheat grows wild near the river's mouth. THE EARLY INHABITANTS.--The oldest inhabitants of this region of whom we have any knowledge were the _Sumerians,_ whose territory included both _Sumer_ ("Shinar"), or southern Babylonia, and _Akkad,_ or northern Babylonia. On the east were the _Elamites,_ with _Susa_ for their capital; to the north of these were the warlike _Kassites._ The Sumerians, who preceded the Semites in the occupancy of Babylonia, were of an unknown stock. They were the founders of Babylonian culture. Even by them the soil was skillfully cultivated with the help of dikes and canals. They were the inventors of the cuneiform writing. The cuneiform characters were originally pictures; but these were resolved into wedge-shaped characters of uniform appearance, the significance of which was determined by their position and local relation to one another. It is not known how long the Sumerian period lasted, nor even when it closed; the chronology of the earliest Semitic period is also very uncertain. The south-Babylonian kings _Urukagina,_ of _Shirpurla_ (Lagash), and _Enshagkushana,_ of a district which included _Nippur,_ are dated by most Assyriologists as early as 4000 B.C., or even earlier. Whether they were Sumerians, or Semites, is not certain; their inscriptions do not settle the question. It was probably not far from this time, however, that the one race supplanted the other. A Semitic people--coming either directly from the ancestral home, Arabia, or from a previous settlement in Mesopotamia, north-west of Babylonia--invaded the land and conquered the Sumerians. They planted themselves first in northern Babylonia, and then gradually extended their power over the districts on the south. The conquerors adopted the civilization of the conquered. The earliest Semitic kings all used the Sumerian dialect in their inscriptions. It was only by slow degrees that the native language was superseded by that of the new rulers. Later,--before the time of _Hammurabi_; see below,--these Semites carried their settlements northward, and became the founders of Assyria. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE.--_Berosus_, a Babylonian priest, wrote a history of his country as early as 250 B.C. He was a trustworthy writer, as far as his means of knowledge went; but it is only fragments of his work that we possess, and these in inaccurate quotations, partly at second hand. Greek writers, as _Ctesias_, drew from Persian sources; and their narratives up to the later times of the Persian rule can not be relied on. The great source of knowledge is the rapidly increasing store of records in the cuneiform character. A vast number of inscriptions on stone and clay, representing nearly every department of literature, have been unearthed, and the material which they afford has already given us an extensive knowledge of Babylonian and Assyrian history. The site of _Nineveh_ has been extensively excavated, and we have, therefore, especially full information as to the history and literature of Assyria. Babylonian monuments in considerable number have more recently come to light. Aside from Nineveh and Babylon, especially important excavations have been undertaken at _Nifpur, Lagash_ (Telloh)--thus far the chief source of Sumerian material--and _Susa_. I. THE OLD KINGDOM OF BABYLON. EARLY HISTORY.--The history of ancient Babylonia is still very obscure, and the chronology only tentative. We see at first a number of independent cities, each ruled by a petty king, who was also a priest. Then appear groups of cities, one of which exercised sway over a more or less extended district. The center of power was now in Erech, now in Ur, or Babylon, or some other city, whose king ruled supreme over numerous vassal kings. Among the first important names known to us are those of _Sargon I._ (3800 B.C.), king of Agade, a great conqueror and builder, and his son, _Naram-sin_. Another great builder was _Gudea_, king of Shirpurla. Most conspicuous of all is _Hammurabi_ (2250 B.C.), king of Babylon, who is probably the "Amraphel" of Gen. xiv. His kingdom included not only the whole of Babylonia proper, but also Assyria, and probably even the "West Land" as far as the Mediterranean. The records show him to have been a truly great ruler, both in war and in peace. He is known to us chiefly from a collection of his _Letters_ to certain officials of his kingdom, and from his elaborate _Code_ of civil laws, found at Susa in 1899, and first published in 1902; perhaps the most important single monument of early civilization which has thus far come to light. The laws, written in the Babylonian (Semitic) language, and engraved on a stele of hard black stone, were about two hundred and eighty in number, and bear an interesting general resemblance to the old Hebrew laws, especially those preserved in Exodus xxi. and xxii. In the time of the kings _Kadashman-bel_ and _Burnaburiash II_. (about 1400 B.C.) falls the _Amarna Correspondence_ (see p. 40). At _Tell el-Amarna_, in upper Egypt, were unearthed, in 1887, more than three hundred clay tablets containing diplomatic dispatches, written in the cuneiform character, and nearly all in the Babylonian language. They were addressed to the Egyptian king, or to his ministers, and had been sent from various officials and royal personages in Babylonia, Assyria, Palestine (including a number of letters from _Abdi-khiba_ of _Jerusalem_), and other districts. They furnish a large amount of important information as to conditions in western Asia at that early period. An important _Kassite_ dynasty occupied the throne of Babylon from the eighteenth century to the twelfth century B.C. Under these Kassite rulers, the kingdom at length declined, while the neighboring Assyrian state had increased in power. Later still, apparently not earlier than the ninth century B.C., the _Chaldoeans_ (of Semitic stock?) pushed north-westward into Babylonia from their district about the mouth of the Euphrates, and eventually made themselves masters of the land. RELIGION AND SCIENCE.--If the events connected with old Babylon are less known, more is ascertained respecting its civilization. The groundwork, as was stated, was laid by the earlier conquered people. The religion of the Babylonians rested on the basis of the old Sumerian worship. There was homage to demons, powerful for good or for evil, who were brought together into groups, and were figured now as human beings, now as lions or other wild animals, or as dragons and that sort of monsters. Of the great gods, _Anu_, the god of the sky, was the father and king of all. _Sin_, the moon-god, a Sumerian divinity, at the outset had the highest rank. _Bel_, or _Baal_, however, a Semitic divinity, was the god of the earth, and particularly of mankind. _Ea_ was the god of the deep, and of the underworld. The early development of astrology and its great influence in old Babylon were closely connected with the supposed association of the luminaries above with the gods. The stars were thought to indicate at the birth of a child what his fortunes would be, and to afford the means of foretelling other remarkable events. _Ishtar_, a goddess of war and of love, was worshiped also under the name _Beltis_, the Greek _Mylitta_. This deity embodied the _generative principle_, the spring of fertility, whose beneficent agency was seen in the abundant harvest. She was clothed with sensual attributes, and propitiated with unchaste rites. It was in the worship of this divinity that the coarse and licentious side of the Semitic nature expressed itself. At the same time, there was an opposite ascetic side in the service of this deity. Her priests were eunuchs: they ministered at her altar in woman's attire. On the relation of the human soul to the gods, and its condition after death, there was little speculation. In general, the Babylonians were more interested in religion and worship, than the Assyrians. The former erected temples; the latter, palaces. The attainments of the early Babylonians in mathematics and astronomy were far beyond those of the Egyptians. They divided the year into twelve months, and arrived at the signs of the ecliptic or zodiac. The week they fixed at seven days by the course of the moon. They divided the day into twelve hours, and the hour into sixty minutes. They invented weights and measures, the knowledge of which went from them to the other Asiatic nations. Architecture, as regards taste, was in a rude state. In pottery, they showed much skill and ingenuity, and invented the potter's wheel. In the engraving of gems, and in the manufacture of delicate fabrics,--linen, muslin, and silk,--they were expert. Trade and commerce, favored by the position of Babylon, began to flourish. As regards literature, the libraries of Nineveh and Babylon, at a later day, contained many books translated from the early Sumerian language. Among them are the "Gilgamesh legends," in which is contained a story of the flood that resembles in essential features the account in Genesis. II. THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. GROWTH OF ITS POWER.--Assyria was even greater, as a conquering power, than Babylon. In the legends current among the Greeks, the building-up of the monarchy, and of Nineveh its capital, as well as of Babylon, is referred to the legendary heroes, _Ninus_ and his queen _Semiramis_. The name of Ninus is not recorded on the monuments, and is, perhaps, a kind of mythical personification of Assyrian conquests and grandeur; and the name of Semiramis does not appear until the ninth century B.C. She may have been a princess or even queen. Assyrian independence began before 2300 B.C. Between 1500 and 1400 B.C., Assyria was a weak state. It gained a brief mastery over Babylon through a conquest by _Tukulti-Ninib_ (1300 B.C.). _Tiglath-Pileser I_. (1100 B.C.) spread his conquests to the Mediterranean and the Caspian on the west, and south to the Persian Gulf. But these early acquisitions of Assyria were transient. There ensued a long interval, until the middle of the tenth century, when the monarchy was mostly confined within its own proper borders. A new series of strong and aggressive princes arose. The conflicts of Damascus and of the nations of Palestine with one another left room for the growth of the Assyrian might and for the spread of Assyrian dominion. _Asshur-nasir-pal_ (formerly called _Sardanapalus I._) levied tribute upon Tyre, and the other rich cities of the Syrian coast, and founded the Assyrian rule in _Cilicia_. About the middle of the eighth century, the kingdom of Israel, having renounced its vassalage to Assyria, in league with _Rezin_ of Damascus, the ruler of Syria, made war upon the kingdom of Judah. _Ahaz_, the Judaean king, against the protest of the prophet _Isaiah_, invoked the aid of the Assyrian monarch, _Tiglath-Pileser II_. The call was answered. The league was overthrown by him in a great battle fought near the Euphrates, and numerous captives, according to the Assyrian practice, were carried away from Samaria and Damascus. We are told that _Ahaz_, seeing the offerings made by Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus, commanded his priests at Jerusalem, despite the remonstrance of Isaiah, to make offerings to the Assyrian gods. Judah, as the result of these events, became tributary to Assyria. All Syria, together with Babylonia, which was then made up of several states, western Iran, and Armenia, were subdued by this Assyrian conqueror. He formally assumed the title of "King of Babylon." _Shalmaneser IV._ (727-722 B.C.), bent on completing the subjugation of Syria, subdued anew the revolted cities, and conquered, as it would seem, the island of _Cyprus_. Tyre alone, that is, the insular city of that name, withstood a siege of five years. _Hoshea_, the king of Israel (733-722 B.C.), in order to throw off the Assyrian yoke, sent an embassy to _Shabak_, the king of Egypt, to procure his assistance. Hearing of this, _Shalmaneser_ attacked Israel. After a siege of three years, Samaria, the capital, fell into the hands of _Sargon_, who had succeeded him, the kingdom of Israel was subverted, and a great part of the people dragged off into captivity. In 720 B.C., _Sargon_ encountered _Shabak_, in the great battle of _Raphia_, in southern Palestine, whom he defeated, and put to flight. He received tribute from Egypt, conquered a part of Arabia, and received the homage of the king of _Meroe_, who made a journey from Ethiopia to bow before him. The reign of _Sennacherib_ (705-681 B.C.) was an eventful one, both for Assyria and for the neighboring countries. _Hezekiah_, king of Judah, hoped with the aid of Egypt to achieve his independence. Sennacherib was obliged to raise the siege of Jerusalem, after Hezekiah had vainly sought to propitiate him with large offerings of silver and gold; but the Assyrian was prevented from engaging in battle with _Tirhaka_ of Egypt by a great calamity that befell his army. Against Babylon, which frequently revolted, he was more successful. "Berodach-baladan," as he is called in Scripture (2 Kings, chap. 20), who at an earlier day had sent an embassy from Babylon to Hezekiah, was overcome, and a new ruler enthroned in his place. _Esarhaddon_ (681-668 B.C.) not only restored the Assyrian sway over Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Judah, and a part of Arabia, countries that lost no opportunity to shake off the cruel and hateful rule of Nineveh, but also conquered Egypt, and parceled it out among twenty governors. By Esarhaddon, or by his successor, _Manasseh_, king of Judah, was conquered, and carried off as a captive, but afterwards restored to his throne. Assyria was now at the summit of its power. _Asshur-bani-pal V._ (668-626 B.C.), called Sardanapalus, although he lost Egypt, confirmed the Assyrian power in the other subject states, and received tribute from _Lydia_, on the western border of Asia Minor. Under him, Assyrian art made its farthest advance. He was the builder of magnificent palaces. It is his library, dug up from the grave in which it had been buried for two and a half decades of centuries, that has yielded a vast amount of welcome information concerning Assyrian and Babylonian history far back into the Sumerian period. RELIGION AND ART.--It has been stated that the Assyrian culture was transplanted from Babylon. The religion was substantially the same, except that _Asshur_, the tutelary deity of the country, was made supreme. The Assyrians from the start were devoted to war, pillage, and conquest. Their unsparing cruelty and brutal treatment of their enemies are abundantly witnessed by their own monuments. They lacked the productive power in literature and art which belonged to the Babylonians. Although they might have built their edifices of stone, they generally made use of brick. Their sculptures in relief were much better than the full figures. They laid color upon their works in sculpture. But their art was merely a pictorial record of events. The sense of beauty and creative power were wanting. The more religious character of the Babylonians created a difference in the architecture of the two peoples. In gem-cutting both were singularly expert. The Assyrians gave less attention to the burial of the dead. They showed an aptitude for trade; and Nineveh, in the eighth and seventh centuries, was a busy mart. THE FALL OF ASSYRIA.--The first important blow at the Assyrian imperial rule was struck by the _Medes_. After nearly a century of resistance, they had been subdued (710 B.C.), and were subject to Assyria for a century after. In 640 B.C., they rose in revolt, under _Phraortes_, one of their native chiefs, who fell in battle. The struggle was continued by his son, _Cyaxares_. His plans were interrupted, however, by THE IRRUPTION OF THE SCYTHIANS (623 B.C.).--More than a century before, these wandering Asiatic tribes had begun to make predatory incursions into Asia Minor. When _Cyaxares_ was before Nineveh, they came down in greater force, and a horde of them, moving southward from the river Halys, invaded Syria. Jerusalem and the stronger cities held out against them, but the open country was devastated. They were met by _Psammeticus I._, king of Egypt, and bribed to turn back. They entered Babylonia; but _Nabopolassar_, the viceroy of Asshur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus), successfully defended the city of Babylon against their attacks. By _Cyaxares_, either these or another horde were defeated; but it was not until 605 B.C. that the region south of the Black Sea was cleared of them. The kingdom of _Lydia_ had now come to play an important part in the affairs of western Asia. Our first knowledge of the peoples of Asia Minor is from the Homeric poems (about 900 B.C.). The _Chalybeans_ were in Pontus; west of them, the _Amazonians_ and _Paphlagonians_; west of these, the _Mysians_; on the Hellespont, small tribes related to the _Trojans_; on the Ægean, the _Dardanians_ and the _Trojans_ (on the north), the _Carians_ and the _Lycians_ (on the south); on the north-east of these last, the _Phrygians_. A large portion of the early inhabitants of Asia Minor were _Semitic_, and closely related to the Syrians. Semitic divinities were worshiped; a goddess, _Mylitta_, under other names, was adored in Pontus, at Ephesus, in Phrygia, and in Lydia. The Lydians were of the Semitic race. _Cybele_, the female divinity whom they served, was the same deity whose altars were at Babylon, Nineveh, and Tyre. The rulers of the dynasty of the _Mermnadæ, Gyges_ and his successors, spread the Lydian dominion until it extended to the Hellespont, and included Mysia and Phrygia. _Alyattes_ was able to extirpate the Cimmerian hordes from the Sea of Azoff, who had overrun the western part of Asia Minor, and to make the Halys his eastern boundary. Gyges had been slain in the contest with those fierce barbarians, called in the Old Testament _Gomer_. At first he had sought help from the Assyrians, but he broke away from this dependence. Liberated from the troubles of the Scythian irruption, _Cyaxares_ formed an alliance with _Nabopolassar_, the viceroy in Babylon, who had revolted, and gained his independence. The Median ruler had subdued Armenia, and established his control as far as the Halys, making a treaty with Lydia. Now ensued the desperate conflict on which hung the fate of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was taken (606 B.C.) by the Medes under _Cyaxares_, and the Babylonians under _Nebuchadnezzar_, the son of Nabopolassar. The Grecian story of Sardanapalus burning himself on a lofty bier, is a myth. Assyria was divided by the _Tigris_ between the _Medes_ and _Babylonians._ THE THREE POWERS: EGYPT.--On the fall of Nineveh, there were three principal powers left on the stage of action, which were bound together by treaty, _Lydia, Media,_ and _Babylon._ Egypt proved itself unable to cope with Babylonian power. _Necho,_ during the siege of Nineveh, had attacked Syria, and defeated the Jews on the plain of Esdraelon, where king _Josiah_ was slain. He dethroned _Jehoahaz,_ Josiah's son, and enthroned _Jehoiakim_ in his stead. But when, in 605 B.C., he confronted Nebuchadnezzar at _Carchemish,_ and was defeated, he was compelled to give up Syria, and to retire within the boundaries of Egypt. III. THE NEW BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. TRIUMPS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.--Syria was now at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar. He captured Jerusalem (597 B.C.), despoiled the temple and palace, and led away Jehoiakim as a captive. He placed on the throne of Judah Jehoiakim's uncle, _Zedekiah._ But this king, having arranged an alliance between Egypt and the Phoenician cities, revolted (590 B.C.), refusing to pay his tribute. Again Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, but raised the siege, in order to drive home _Apries II._ (Hophra), the Egyptian ally of Zedekiah. The city was taken, the king's sons were killed in his presence, his own eyes were put out; and, after the temple and palace had been burned and the city sacked, he, with all the families of the upper class who had not escaped to the desert, was carried away to Babylon (586 B.C.). Tyre (the old city) in like manner was taken by assault (585 B.C.). By Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon was enlarged, and adorned on a scale of unequaled splendor. The new palace, with its "hanging gardens," the bridge over the Euphrates, the Median wall connecting the Euphrates and the Tigris on his northern boundary, and magnificent waterworks, are famous structures which belong to this reign. Wealth and luxury abounded. But vigor of administration fell away under his successors; and Babylon, after a dominion short when compared with the long sway of Nineveh, was conquered by _Cyrus,_ the Medo-Persian king, in 538 B.C. The last king was _Nabonetus._ THE CITY OF BABYLON.--Babylon was a city of the highest antiquity. The name (_Bab-ili,_ "Gate of God") is Semitic. The city is mentioned in the earliest cuneiform records, and from the time of Hammurabi was the chief city of the land. Destroyed by Sennacherib (690 B.C.), it was rebuilt by Esarhaddon, but not fully restored and adorned until the reigns of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon surpassed all ancient cities in size and magnificence. Its walls were forty miles in circumference. This extent of wall probably included Borsippa, or "Babylon the Second," on the right bank of the river. Babylon proper was mainly on the left. Within the walls were inclosed gardens, orchards, and fields: the space was only filled in part by buildings; but the whole area was laid out with straight streets intersecting one another at right angles, like the streets of Philadelphia. The wall was pierced by a hundred gates, probably twenty-five in each face. The Euphrates, lined with quays on both sides, and spanned with drawbridges, ran through the town, dividing it into two nearly equal parts. The city was protected without by a deep and wide moat. The wall was at least seventy or eighty feet in height, and of vast and unusual thickness. On the summit were two hundred and fifty towers, placed along the outer and inner edges, opposite to one another, but so far apart, according to Herodotus, that there was room for a four-horse chariot to pass between. The temple of _Bel_ was in a square inclosure, about a quarter of a mile both in length and breadth. The tower of the temple was ascended on the outside by an inclined plane carried around the four sides. An exaggerated statement of _Strabo_ makes its height six hundred and six feet. Possibly, this represents the length of the inclined plane. In the shrine on the top were a golden table and a couch; according to _Diodorus_, before the Persian conquest there were colossal golden images of three divinities, with two golden lions, and two enormous serpents of silver. It is thought that Herodotus may have described the splendid temple of _Nebo_ (now _Birs Nimrûd_), and have mistaken it, by reason of its enormous ruins, for the temple of _Bel_, which it rivaled in magnificence. The great palace is represented to have been larger than the temple of Bel, the outermost of its three inclosing walls being three miles in circumference. Its exterior was of baked brick. The "Hanging Gardens" was a structure built on a square, consisting of stages or stories, one above another, each supported by arches, and covered on the top, at the height of at least seventy-five feet, with a great mass of earth in which grew flowers and shrubs, and even large trees. The ascent to the top was by steps. On the way up were stately and elegant apartments. The smaller palace was on the other side of the river. LITERATURE.--Works on Oriental History mentioned on p. 42. Tiele, _Babylonisch-assyrische Geschichte_ (1888); Kaulen, _Assyrien und Babylonien_ (5th ed., 1899); Rogers, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_ (1901); Goodspeed, _History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_ (1902); King, Articles _Assyria_ and _Babylonia_ in the _Encyclopedia Biblica_; Sayce, _Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs_ (1899); Schrader, _The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament_; Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_ (1898); Perrot & Chipiez, _Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquité_, vol. ii., _Chaldèe et Assyrie_. CHAPTER III. THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS. PHOENICIA.--A narrow strip of territory separates the mountains of Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean. Of this belt the northern part, west of Lebanon, about one hundred and fifty miles long, varies in width from five to fourteen miles. In some places the cliffs approach close to the sea. This belt of land was occupied by the first of the great maritime and commercial peoples of antiquity, the Phoenicians. Their language was Semitic, closely akin to Hebrew. COMMERCE AND PROSPERITY OF THE PHOENICIANS.--The most important of the Phoenician cities were Sidon--which was the first of them to rise to distinction and power--and Tyre, which became more famous as a mart, and comprised, besides the town on the coast, New Tyre, the city built on the neighboring rocky island. In New Tyre was the sanctuary of the tutelary god, _Melkart_. The spirit of trade stimulated ingenuity. The Phoenicians were noted for their glass, their purple dyes, their improved alphabet, and knowledge of the art of writing. In mining and in casting metals, in the manufacture of cloth, in architecture, and in other arts, they were not less proficient. From their situation they naturally became a seafaring race. Not only did they transport their cargoes of merchandise to the islands and shores of the Mediterranean, conveying thither not merely the fruits of their own industry and skill, but also the productions of the East: they ventured to steer their vessels beyond the Strait of Gibraltar; and, if they did not procure amber directly from the North Sea, they brought tin either directly from Cornwall or from the Scilly Islands. Through the hands of Phoenician merchants "passed the gold and pearls of the East, the purple of Tyre, slaves, ivory, lions' and panthers' skins from the interior of Africa, frankincense from Arabia, the linen of Egypt, the pottery and fine wares of Greece, the copper of Cyprus, the silver of Spain, tin from England, and iron from Elba." These products were carried wherever a market could be found for them. At the instigation of Necho, king of Egypt (610-594 B.C.), they are said to have made a three years' voyage round the southern cape of Africa. COLONIES: OPULENCE.-The Phoenicians were the first great colonizing nation of antiquity. It was the fashion of Assyrians and other conquerors to transport to their own lands multitudes of people, whom they carried away as captives from their homes. The Phoenicians--in this particular the forerunners of the Greeks and of the Dutch and the English--planted trading settlements in Cyprus and Crete, on the islands of the Ægean Sea, in southern Spain, and in North Africa. _Cadiz_, one of the oldest towns in Europe, was founded by these enterprising traders (about 1100 B.C.). _Tarshish_ was another of their Spanish settlements. "Ships of Tarshish," like the modern "East Indiamen," came to signify vessels capable of making long voyages. The coast of modern Andalusia and Granada belonged to the Phoenicians. Through caravans their intercourse was not less lively with the states on the Euphrates, with Nineveh and Babylon, as well as with Egypt. Tyre was a link between the East and the West. HIRAM: SETTLEMENT OF CARTHAGE.--The Tyrian power attained to its height under King _Hiram I._, the contemporary and ally of _Solomon_. Two Greek historians make his reign to extend from 969 to 936 B.C. The alliance with Solomon extended the traffic of Tyre, and increased its wealth. Hiram connected old and New Tyre by a bridge. The Tyrians adorned their city with stately palaces and temples, and built strong fortifications. Engrossed in manufactures and commerce, and delighting in the affluence thus engendered, the Phoenicians were not ambitious of conquest. Although conquerors upon the sea, they were not a martial people: like commercial states generally, they preferred peace. Of the people of Laish (Dan), it is said in the Book of Judges (xviii. 7), "They dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure." This pacific temper was coupled with a fervent attachment to their own land and to their countrymen wherever they went. But they lacked the political instinct. They did not appreciate liberty, and their love of traffic and of gain often made them prefer to pay tribute rather than to fight. Their colonies were factories, but were not centers of further conquest, or germs of political communities. When, the family of _Hiram_ was exterminated (about 850 B.C.) by the high-priest of the goddess Astarte, who seized on power, civil strife and disorder ensued. _Pygmalion_, the great-grandson of the high-priest, as it is related by a Grecian authority, slew his uncle, who was to marry Pygmalion's sister, _Elissa_. On account of this internal conflict, and from dread of the Assyrian power, a large number of the old families emigrated to North Africa, and founded Carthage (about 814 B.C.). The Phoenician cities were confederated together under hereditary kings, whose power was limited by the lay and priestly aristocracy. The common people, many of whom were skilled artisans, made themselves felt in some degree in public affairs. The mercantile class were influential. Thus there was developed a germinant municipal feeling and organization. The "strong city," Tyre, is mentioned in _Joshua_ xix. 29. In _Isaiah_ xxiii., Tyre is described as "the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth." "He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms." The fate of Babylon is pointed at by the Prophet, to show what Tyre had to expect from Assyria. Later, before the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, _Ezekiel_ thus speaks of Tyre (chap, xxvii.): "They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee." "Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars." "Tarshish was thy merchant." RELIGION AND LETTERS.--A very prominent feature of the religion of the Phaenicians is the local character of their divinities. The word _baal_("lord" or "god") was not used in Phaenicia as the proper name of any one god. But such names as _Baal-sidon_, "Lord of Sidon," _Baal-libanon_, "God of Lebanon," etc., are common. _Astarte_ was the most common name for the local female divinities. The gods were often thought of as dwelling in stones, trees, and other objects; the worship of stone-pillars and sacred poles (_ashera_; translated "grove" in the English Bible) was especially common in Phaenicia. On the other hand, a "god of heaven" and a "goddess of heaven" were worshiped. In the religion of the Phaenicians, the more elevated ingredients of the Semitic heathenism are in the background. The sensual features of it are more prominent, and savage elements are introduced. It was more adapted to foster than to check lust and cruelty. To Astarte, maidens sacrifice their chastity. There was the same double ritual, made up of gross sensuality on the one hand, and of ascetic practices by the priesthood on the other, that belonged to the service of Mylitta at Babylon. Human sacrifice by fire was another horrible feature. Children, especially, were offered to _El _("god"; possibly also called _Melek_ (Moloch), "the king," as among the Hebrews). To appease him at Tyre and Carthage, girls and boys, sometimes in large numbers, and of the highest families, were cast into the flames; while the wailing of their relatives, if it was not stifled by themselves at the supposed demand of piety, was drowned by the sound of musical instruments. As late as 310 B.C., when Agathocles was besieging Carthage, and had reduced the city to the direst straits, we are told that the people laid two hundred boys of their noblest families upon the arms of the brazen image of the god, whence they were allowed to fall into the fire beneath. On similar occasions, even the head of the state sometimes offered himself as a sacrifice. _Hamilcar_, the Carthaginian, son of Hanno, in Sicily, when the tide of battle was turning against him, threw himself into the fire (480 B.C.). Juba, king of Numidia, prepared to do the same after the battle of Thapsus. Large and costly temples were built, generally in the Egyptian style. Such were the temples of _Melkart_ at Tyre and Cadiz, of _Eshmun_ at Sidon, and of "the Lady of Byblos" at that city. Nature--as dying in the autumn, and again reviving in the spring--is figured as the god _Adonisz_, who is honored first by a protracted season of mourning, and then by a joyous festival. The Phoenicians were not a literary people. Their alphabet (invented by them?) was the old Semitic alphabet. Every character represented a sound. From the Phaenicians it spread, and became the mother of most of the graphic systems now existing. Cadmus, however, by whom it was said to be carried to the Greeks, is a fabulous person. The alleged history of _Sanchuniathon_, which was published in Greek by _Philo_ of Byblus, in the second century A.D., is now generally believed to be the work of Philo himself. HISTORICAL EVENTS.--In the struggles against the Mesopotamian empires, the Phaenicians defended themselves with valor and perseverance. When _Sargon_ (722-705 B.C.) had subjugated their cities on the mainland, insular Tyre for five years repelled his assaults, although the conduits bringing fresh water from the shore were cut off, and the besieged were obliged to content themselves with the scanty supply to be gained from wells dug with great labor. Soon the Tyrian fleets regained their mastery on the sea. When Nebuchadnezzar captured old Tyre, and a multitude of its inhabitants shared the lot of the Jews, and were dragged off by the conqueror to the Euphrates, the island city withstood his attack for thirteen years, and did not yield until it extorted from him a treaty. But the power of resistance was weakened by the repeated invasions and domination of Nineveh and Babylon. Tyre submitted to Persia after the downfall of the Babylonian monarchy, and added her fleet to the Persian forces; although to the Phoenician towns was left a degree of freedom and their local government. Sidon, Tyre, and Arados had a council of their own, which met with their respective kings and senators at Tripolis, for the regulation of matters of common interest. Manufactures and commerce continued to flourish. Under the Persian supremacy, Sidon once more became the chief city. In the middle of the fourth century B.C., it revolted against the tyranny of the foreign governors. The Persian king, _Ochus_, ordered that the noblest citizens should be put to death; whereupon the inhabitants set the city on fire, and destroyed themselves and their treasures in the flames. Tyre remained, but ventured to resist _Alexander the Great_, after his conquest of the Persians, and by him was captured and partly demolished (332 B.C.). After the death of Alexander, the Phoenicians fell under the sway of the _Seleucidæ_ at Antioch, and, for a time, of the Egyptian _Ptolemies_. Both Tyre and Sidon were rebuilt, and flourished anew. It is probably to the third century B.C. that we should assign the native Sidonian dynasty which included the Kings _Eshmunazar I., Sedek-yaton, Tabnit, Bodashtart_, and _Eshmunazar II._, whose names are known to us from inscriptions. In the time of the last-named king, the cities Dor and Joppa, with the plain of Sharon, belonged to Sidon. CARTHAGINIAN HISTORY.--The most prominent of all the Phoenician settlements was Carthage. It had remarkable advantages of situation. Its harbor was sufficient for the anchorage of the largest vessels, and it had a fertile territory around it. These circumstances, in conjunction with the energy of its inhabitants, placed it at the head of the Phoenician colonies. In Carthage, there was no middle class. There were the rich landholders and merchants, and the common people. The government was practically an oligarchy. There were two kings or judges (_Shofetes_), with little power, and a _council_ or _senate_; possibly a second council also. But the senate and magistrates were subordinate to an aristocratic body, the _hundred judges_. The bulk of the citizens had little more than a nominal influence in public affairs. ASCENDENCY OF CARTHAGE.-When the Greeks (about 600 B.C.) spread their colonies, the rivals of the Phoenician settlements, in the west of the Mediterranean, Carthage was moved to deviate from the policy of the parent cities, and to make herself the champion, protector, and mistress of the Phoenician dependencies in all that region. Thus she became the head of a North-African empire, which asserted its supremacy against its Greek adversaries in Sicily and Spain, as well as in Lybia. When Tyre was subjugated by Persia, Carthage was strengthened by the immigration of many of the best Tyrian families. As the Tyrian strength waned, the Carthaginian power increased. _Syracuse_, in Sicily, became the first Greek naval power, and the foremost antagonist of the Carthaginian dominion. In 480 B.C., Carthage made war upon the Greek cities in Sicily. The contest was renewed from time to time. In the conflicts between 439-409 B.C., she confirmed her sway over the western half of the island. In later conflicts (317-275 B.C.), in which _Agathocles_, tyrant of Syracuse, was a noted leader of the Greeks, and, after his death, _Pyrrhus_, king of Epirus, was their ally, Carthage alternately lost and regained her Sicilian cities. But the result of the war was to establish her maritime ascendency. LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on pp. 16, 42: Pietschmann, _Geschichte der Phönizier_ (1889); Rawlinson, _History of Phoenicia_ (1889); E. Meycr, Art. _Phoenicia_ in the _Encycl. Bibl._; Perrot & Chipiez, _History of Art in Phoenicia and Cyprus_, 2 vols.; Renan, _Mission de Phenicie_ (1874); Meltzer, _Geschichte der Karthager_; F. W. Newman's _Defense of Carthage_. CHAPTER IV. THE HEBREWS. PECULIARITY OF THE HEBREWS.--While the rest of the nations worshiped "gods many and lords many," whom they confounded with the motions of the heavenly bodies, or with other aspects of nature, there was one people which attained to a faith in one God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, who is exalted above nature, and whom it was deemed impious to represent by any material image. More than is true of any other people, religion was consciously the one end and aim of their being. To bring the true religion to its perfection, and to give it a world-wide diffusion and sway, was felt by them to be their heaven-appointed mission. The peculiarity of their faith made them stand alone, and rendered them exclusive, and intolerant of the surrounding idolatries. The mountainous character of their land, separated by Lebanon from Phoenicia, and by the desert from the nations on the East and South, was well adapted to the work which they had to fulfill in the course of history. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.--The Israelites traced their descent from _Abraham_, who, to escape the infection of idolatry, left his home, which was in _Ur_ on the lower Euphrates, and came into the land of Canaan, where he led a wandering life, but became the father of a group of nations. According to the popular narrative, _Isaac_, his son by _Sarah_, was recognized as the next chief of the family; while _Ishmael_, Abraham's son by _Hagar_, became the progenitor of the _Arabians_. Of the two sons of Isaac, _Esau_, who was a huntsman, married a daughter of the native people: from him sprung the _Edomites_. _Jacob_ kept up the occupation of a herdsman. Of his twelve sons, _Joseph_ was an object of jealousy to the other eleven, by whom he was sold to a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt. There, through his skill in interpreting dreams, he rose to high dignities and honors in the court of Pharaoh; and, by his agency, the entire family were allowed to settle oh the pasture-lands of _Goshen_ in northern Egypt (p. 40). Here in the neighborhood of _Heliopolis_, for several centuries, they fed their flocks. From Israel, the name given to Jacob, they were commonly called _Israelites_. The name _Hebrews_ was apparently derived from a word signifying "across the river" (Euphrates); but the original application is quite uncertain. THE EXODUS (see p. 41).--The time came when the Israelites were no longer well treated. A new Egyptian dynasty was on the throne. Their numbers were an occasion of apprehension. An Egyptian princess saved _Moses_ from being a victim of a barbarous edict issued against them. He grew to manhood in Pharaoh's court, but became the champion of his people. Compelled to flee, he received in the lonely region of _Mount Sinai_ that sublime disclosure of the only living God which qualified him to be the leader and deliverer of his brethren. A "strong east wind," parting the Red Sea, opened a passage for the Israelites, whom a succession of calamities, inflicted upon their oppressors by the Almighty, had driven Pharaoh (Menephthah?) to permit to depart in a body; but the returning waves ingulfed the pursuing Egyptian army. "The sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters." For a long period _Moses_ led the people about in the wilderness. They were trained by this experience to habits of order and military discipline. At _Horeb_, the Decalogue, the kernel, so to speak, of the Hebrew codes, the foundation of the religious and social life of the people, was given them under circumstances fitted to awaken the deepest awe. They placed themselves under Jehovah as the Ruler and Protector of the nation in a special sense. The worship of other divinities, every form of idolatry, was to be a treasonable offense. The laws of Jehovah were to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, in the "Tabernacle," which was the sanctuary, and was transported from place to place. The priesthood was devolved on _Aaron_ and his successors, at the side of whom were their assistants, the _Levites_. The civil authority in each tribe was placed in the hands of the patriarchal chief and the "elders," the right of approval or of veto being left to the whole tribe gathered in an assembly. The heads of the tribes, with seventy representative elders, together with Aaron and Moses, formed a supreme council or standing committee. On particular occasions a congregation of all the tribes might be summoned. The ritual was made up of sacrifices and solemn festivals. The _Sabbath_ was the great weekly commemoration, a day of rest for the slave as well as for the master, for the toiling beast as well as for man. Every seventh year and every fiftieth year were sabbaths, when great inequalities of condition, which might spring up in the intervals, respecting the possession of land, servitude consequent on debts, etc., were removed. Hebrew Laws.--The Israelites, in virtue of their covenant with Jehovah, were to be a holy people, a nation of priests. They were thus to maintain fraternal equality. There was to be no enslaving of one another, save that which was voluntary and for a limited time. Only prisoners not of their race, or purchased foreigners, could be held as slaves. Every fiftieth year, land was to revert to its original possessor. In the sabbatical years the land was not to be tilled. What then grew wild might be gathered by all. There were careful provisions for the benefit of the poor. HEADS OF TRIBES.--The progenitors of the tribes, the sons of Jacob, as given in _Exodus_, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. THE HEBREW RELIGION--Such, in brief, were the beginnings of a religion as unique as it was elevated in its character,--a religion which stood from the outset in mortal antagonism to the Egyptian worship of sun-gods, and to the star-worship, the service of Baal, and of sensual or savage divinities joined with him,--to that service which was diffused through the Semitic nations of western Asia. A people was constituted to be the guardian of this light, kindled in the midst of the surrounding darkness, to carry it down to later ages, and to make it finally, in its perfected form, the heritage of mankind. THE PROPHETS.--_Moses_ was not only a military leader and a legislator: he stands at the head of the _prophets_, the class of men who at different times, especially in seasons of national peril and temptation, along the whole course of Israelitish history, were raised up to declare the will of Jehovah, to utter the lessons proper to the hour, to warn evil-doers, and to comfort the desponding. CONQUEST OF CANAAN: THE ERA OF THE JUDGES.--Moses himself did not enter "the promised land," where the patriarchs were buried, and which the Israelites were to conquer. According to Deut. vii. 2, a war of extermination was commanded. The reason given for the command was that the people must avoid the contagion of idolatry, that it was the fit reward of the nation which they were bidden to dispossess. The word _"Canaanite"_ was used especially to designate the inhabitants of the coast region of Palestine. It was applied, however, to all the tribes, who were under thirty-one kings or chiefs, in the time of Joshua, There were six principal tribes,--the _Hittites_, _Hivites_, _Amorites_, _Jebusites_, _Perizzites_, and _Girgashites_. These, with the exception of the _Hittites_, and possibly the _Amtorites_, were Semitic in their language. The Canaanites had houses and vineyards. From them the Israelites learned agriculture. "They were in possession of fortified towns, treasures of brass, iron, gold, and foreign merchandise" Their religious rites were brutal and debasing,--"human sacrifice, licentious orgies, the worship of a host of divinities." On the death of Moses, _Joshua_ succeeded to the post of a leader. He defeated the _Amontes_ and other tribes on the east of the Jordan. After the first victories of Joshua, each tribe carried on for itself the struggle with Canaanites, victory over them being often followed by indiscriminate slaughter. It is plain, however, especially from the account in the first chapter of the Book of Judges, that there was a process of assimilation as well as one of conquest. The actual settlement was effected by peaceful as well as by warlike methods. Resistance was stubborn, and the progress of occupation slow. It was not until David's time, centuries after the invasion, that _Jebus_, the site of Jerusalem, was captured. This delay was due largely to a lack of union, not to a lack of valor. The strength of the Israelites was in their infantry. Hence they preferred to fight upon the hills, rather than to cope with horsemen and chariots on the plains below. THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES.--The era of the Judges extends from about 1300 B.C. over at least two centuries. Powerful tribes--as _Moabites_, _Midianites_, _Ammonites_, _Philistines_--were unsubdued. The land was desolated by constant war. It was one sure sign of the prevailing disorder and anarchy, that "the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways" (Judg. v. 6). Not unfrequently the people forgot Jehovah, and fell into idolatrous practices. In this period of degeneracy and confusion, men full of sacred enthusiasm and of heroic courage arose to smite the enemies of Israel, and to restore the observance of the law. Of these heroic leaders, _Deborah_, _Gideon_, _Jepththa_, and _Samson_ were the most famous. There remains the song of Deborah on the defeat and death of _Sisera_ (Judg. v.). The _Philistines_, on the western coast, captured the sacred ark,--an act that spread dismay among the Israelites. Then they pushed on their conquests as far as the Jordan, took away from the Israelites their weapons, and grievously oppressed them. The _Ammonites_ threatened the tribes on the east of the Jordan with a like fate. At this juncture, an effective leader and reformer appeared, in the person of _Samuel_, who had been consecrated from his youth up to the service of the sanctuary, and whose devotion to the law was mingled with an ardent patriotism. He roused the courage of the people, and recalled them to the service of Jehovah. In the "schools of the prophets" he taught the young the law, trained them in music and song, and thus prepared a class of inspiring teachers and guides to co-operate with the priesthood in upholding the cause of religion. THE MONARCHY: SAMUEL AND SAUL.--In the distracted condition of the country, the people demanded a king, to unite them, and lead them to victory, and to administer justice. They felt that their lack of compact organization and defined leadership placed them at a disadvantage in comparison with the tribes about. This demand _Samuel_ resisted, as springing out of a distrust of Jehovah, and as involving a rejection of Him. He depicted the burdens which regal government would bring upon them. Later history verified his prediction. A strong, centralized authority was not in harmony with the family and tribal government which was the peculiarity of their system. It brought in, by the side of the prophetic order, another authority less sacred in its claims to respect. Collisions between the two must inevitably result. But, whatever might be the ideal political system, the exigency was such that Samuel yielded to the persistent call of the people. He himself chose and anointed for the office a tall, brave, and experienced soldier, _Saul_. Successful in combat, the king soon fell into a conflict with the prophet, by failing to comply with the divine law, and by sparing, contrary to the injunction laid upon him, prisoners and cattle that he had captured. Thereupon Samuel secretly anointed _David_, a young shepherd of the tribe of Judah; thus designating him for the throne. The envy of Saul at the achievements of David, and at his growing popularity, coupled with secret suspicion of what higher honors might be in store for the valiant youth, embittered the king against him. David was befriended and shielded by _Jonathan_, Saul's son, who might naturally be looked upon as his suitable successor. The memorials of the friendship of these two youths, in the annals of that troublous time, are like a star in the darkest night. David was obliged to take refuge among the Philistines, where he led a band of free lances, whom the Philistines did not trust as auxiliaries, but who were inured by their daring combats for the struggles that came afterwards. Saul and Jonathan were slain, Saul by his own hand. For six years David was king in _Hebron_, over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The other tribes were ruled by Saul's son, _Ishbaal_ ('Ishbosheth'). At length David was recognized as king by all the tribes. Saul's family were exterminated. CHRONOLOGY.--There is much difficulty in settling the chronology in the early centuries of the regal period of Hebrew history. Apart from the questions which arise in comparing the biblical data, the information derived from Egyptian and especially from Assyrian sources has to be taken into account. Hence the dates given below must be regarded as open to revision as our knowledge increases. Assyriologists find that Shalmaneser II. received tribute from _Ahab_, King of Israel, 854 B.C., and from _Jehu_, 842 B.C.; that _Tiglath-Pileser III_ (745-727 B.C.) received tribute from _Menahem_ in 738 B.C. and that Samaria fell in 722 B.C. Assyriology, on the basis of its data, _as at present ascertained_, would make out a chronology something like the following: Era of the judges, 1300-1020; Saul, 1020-1000; David, 1000-960; Solomon, 960-930; Reho-boam, 930-914 (Jeroboam I., 930-910); Jehoshaphat, 870+-850 (Ahab, 875-853); Azanah (or Uzziah), 779-740 (Jehu, 842-815); (Jeroboam II., 783-743); (Menahem, 744-738). DAVID AND SOLOMON.--David's reign (about 1000-970 B.C.) is the period of Israel's greatest power. He extended his sway as far as the Red Sea and the Euphrates; he overcame Damascus, and broke down the power of the Philistines; he subdued the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites; he conquered the Jebusites, and made Jerusalem his capital and the center of national worship. A poet himself, he enriched the religious service, which he organized, by lyrics--some of them composed by himself--of unrivaled devotional depth and poetic beauty. He organized his military force as well, and established an orderly civil administration. His favorite son, _Absalom_, led away by ambition, availed himself of disaffection among the people to head a revolt against his father, but perished in the attempt. David left his crown to _Solomon_ at the close of a checkered life, marked by great victories, and by flagrant misdeeds done under the pressure of temptation. CHARACTERS OF SOLOMON'S REIGN.--Solomon's reign (about 970-933 B.C.) was the era of luxury and splendor. He sought to emulate the other great monarchs of the time. With the help of _Hiram_, king of Tyre, who furnished materials and artisans, he erected a magnificent temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He built costly palaces. He brought horses from Egypt, and organized a standing army, with its cavalry and chariots. He established a harem, bringing into it women from the heathen countries, whom he allowed in their idolatrous rites. He was even seduced to take part in them himself. Renowned for his knowledge and for his wisdom--which was admired by the _Queen of Saba_ (Sheba), who came to visit him from the Arabian coast--famous as the author of wise aphorisms, he nevertheless entailed disasters on his country. He established a sort of Oriental despotism, which exhausted its resources, provoked discontent, and tended to undermine morality as well as religion. THE DIVIDED KINGDOM.--The bad effect of Solomon's magnificence soon appeared. Before his death a revolt was made under the lead of _Jeroboam_, which was put down. Of _Rehoboam_, the successor of Solomon, the ten tribes north of Judah required pledges that their burdens should be lightened. In the room of the heads and elders of the tribes, the late king's officers had come in to oppress them with their hard exactions. The haughty young king spurned the demand for redress. The tribes cast off his rule, and made _Jeroboam I._ their king (about 933 B.C.). The temple was left in the hands of _Judah_ and _Benjamin_. The division of the kingdom into two, insured the downfall of both. The rising power of the Mesopotamian Empire could not be met without union. On the other hand, the concentration of worship at Jerusalem, under the auspices of the two southern tribes, may have averted dangers that would have arisen from the wider diffusion, and consequent exposure to corruption, of the religious system. The development and promotion of the true religion--the one great historical part appointed for the Hebrews--may have been performed not less effectively, on the whole, for the separation. HEATHEN RITES.--From this time the energetic and prolonged contest of the prophets with idolatry is a conspicuous feature, especially in the history of Israel, the northern kingdom. _Jeroboam_ set up golden calves at _Dan_ and _Bethel_, ancient seats of the worship of Jehovah. Wars with Judah and Damascus weakened the strength of Israel. The Egyptian king, _Shishak_, captured Jerusalem, and bore away the treasures collected by Solomon (p. 41). Under _Jehoshaphat_ (about 873-849 B.C.) the heathen altars were demolished and prosperity returned. STRUGGLE WITH IDOLATRY: ELIHAH AND ELISHA.--The contemporary of Jehoshaphat in the northern kingdom was _Ahab_ (about 876-854 B.C.). He expended his power and wealth in the building up of Baal-worship, at the instigation of the Tyrian princess, _Jezebel_, whom he had married. At Samaria, his capital, he raised a temple to Baal, where four hundred and fifty of his priests ministered. The priests of Jehovah who withstood these measures were driven out of the land, or into hiding-places. The austere and intrepid prophet _Elijah_ found refuge in _Mount Carmel_. The people, on the occasion of a famine, which he declared to be a divine judgment, rose in their wrath, and slew the priests of Baal. In a war--the third of a series--which Ahab waged against _Syria_, he still fought in his chariot, after he had received a mortal wound, until he fell dead. He had previously thrown the prophet _Micaiah_ into prison for predicting this result. By the marriage of _Athalia_, a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, with Jehoshaphat's son, Baal-worship was introduced into Jerusalem. _Joram_ succeeded Ahab. The prophet _Elisha_, who followed in the steps of Elijah, anointed _Jehu_ "captain of the host of Joram." He undertook, with fierce and unsparing energy, to destroy Baal-worship, and to extirpate the house of Ahab, root and branch. The two kings of Israel and of Judah he slew with his own hand. The priests and servants of Baal were put to the sword. These conflicts reduced the strength of Israel, which fell a prey to Syria, until its power was revived by _Jeroboam II_. (783-743 B.C.). The death of _Athalia_ brought on the expulsion of the Phoenician idolatry from Jerusalem. The southern kingdom suffered from internal strife, and from wars with Israel, until _Uzziah_ (779-740 B.C.) restored its military strength, and caused agriculture and trade once more to flourish. THE ASSYRIAN CAPTIVITY.--The two kingdoms, in the ninth and eighth centuries, instead of standing together against the threatening might of Assyria, sought heathen alliances, and wasted their strength in mutual contention. Against these hopeless alliances, and against the idolatry and the formalism which debased the people, the prophets contended with intense earnestness and unflinching courage. _Amos_, called from feeding his flocks, inveighed against frivolity and vice, misgovernment and fraud, in Israel. _Hosea_ warned _Menahem_ (743-737 B.C.) against invoking the help of Assyria against Damascus, but in vain. He was terribly punished by what he suffered from the Assyrians; but Jotham (740-736 B.C.) and Ahaz (736-728 B.C.), the Judaean kings, successively followed his example. _Tiglath-Pileser_ made Judaea tributary. The Assyrian rites were brought into the temple of Jehovah. The service of Canaanitish deities was introduced. The one incorruptible witness for the cause of Jehovah was the fearless and eloquent prophet, _Isaiah_. Hosea, king of Israel, by his alliance with Egypt against _Sargon_, so incensed this most warlike of the Assyrian monarchs, that, when he had subdued the Phoenician cities, he laid siege to Samaria; and, having captured it at the end of a siege of three years, he led away the king and the larger part of his subjects as captives, to the Euphrates and the Tigris, and replaced them by subjects of his own (722 B.C.). The later Samaritans were the descendants of this mixed population. The Babylonian Captivity.--When _Sargon_, the object of general dread, died, _Hezekiah_, king of Judah (727-699 B.C.), flattered himself that it was safe to disregard the warnings of Isaiah, and, in the hope of throwing off the Assyrian yoke, made a treaty of alliance with the king of Egypt, and fortified Jerusalem. He abolished, however, the heathen worship in "the high places." _Sennacherib_, Sargon's successor, was compelled to raise the siege (p. 46). _Manasseh_ (698-643 B.C.), in defiance of the prophets, fostered the idolatrous and sensual worship, against which they never ceased to lift their voices. _Josiah_ (640-609 B.C.) was a reformer. As a tributary of Babylon, he sought to prevent _Necho_, king of Egypt, from crossing his territory, but was vanquished and slain at _Megiddo_, on the plain of Esdraelon. _Nebuchadnezzar's_ victory over Necho, at _Carchemish_, enabled the Babylonian king to tread in the footsteps of the Assyrian conquerors. The revolt of _Zedekiah_, which the prophet _Jeremiah_ was unable to prevent, and his alliance with Egypt, led to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. In this period of national ruin, the prophetic spirit found a voice through _Jeremiah_ and _Ezekiel_. It was during the era of Assyrian and Babylonian invasion that the predictions of a MESSIAH, a great Deliverer and righteous Ruler who was to come, assumed a more definite expression. The spiritual character of _Isaiah's_ teaching has given him the name of "the evangelical prophet." _Cyrus_, the conqueror of Babylon, opened the way (538 B.C.) for the return of the exiles. A small part first came back under _Zerubbabel_, head of the tribe of Judah, who was made Persian governor. They began to rebuild the temple, which was finished in 516 B.C. Later (458 B.C.) _Ezra_ "the scribe" and _Nehemiah_ led home a larger body. The newly returned Jews were fired with a zeal for the observance of the Mosaic ritual,--a zeal which had been sharpened in the persecutions and sorrows of exile. The era of the _"hagiocracy,"_ of the supreme influence of the priesthood and the rigid adherence to the law, with an inflexible hostility to heathen customs, ensued. The spirit of which prophecy had been the stimulant, and partially the fruit, declined. The political independence of the land was gone for ever. The day of freedom under the _Maccabees_, after the insurrection (168 B.C.) led by that family against the Syrian successors of Alexander, was short. But Israel "had been thrown into the stream of nations." Its religious influence was to expand as its political strength dwindled. Its subjugation and all its terrible misfortunes were to serve as a means of spreading the leavening influence of its monotheistic faith. In the year 63 B.C., _Pompeius_ made the Jews tributary to the Romans. In the year 40 B.C., _Herod_ began to reign as a dependent king under Rome. _Hebrew Literature_.--The literature of the Hebrews is essentially religious in its whole motive and spirit. This is true even of their historical writings. The marks of the one defining characteristic of their national life--faith in Jehovah and in his sovereign and righteous control--are everywhere seen. Hebrew poetry is mainly lyrical. Relics of old songs are scattered through the historical books. In the _Psalms_, an anthology of sacred lyrics, the spirit of Hebrew poesy attains to its highest flight. Examples of didactic poetry are the Book of _Job_, and books like the _Proverbs_, composed mainly of pithy sayings or gnomes. Nowhere, save in the Psalms, does the spirit of the Hebrew religion and the genius of the people find an expression so grand and moving as in the _Prophets_, of whom _Isaiah_ is the chief. ART.--In art the Hebrews did not excel. The plastic arts were generally developed in connection with religion. But the religion of the Hebrews excluded all visible representations of deity. Nor were they proficients in science. "Israel was the vessel in which the water of life was inclosed, in which it was kept cool and pure, that it might thereafter refresh the world." The HISTORICAL BOOKS of the Old Testament comprise, first, the _Pentateuch_, which describes the origin of the Hebrew people, the exodus from Egypt, and the Sinaitic legislation. Questions pertaining to the date and authorship of these five books, and of the materials at the basis of them, are still debated among historical critics. It may be regarded as certain, however, that materials belonging to nearly every period of Hebrew literature, from the earliest times, are here combined. The early part of Genesis is designed to explain the genealogy of the Hebrews, and to show how, step by step, they were sundered from other peoples. The narratives in the first ten chapters--as the story of the creation, the flood, etc.--so strikingly resemble legends of other Semitic nations, especially the _Babylonians_and _Phoenicians_, as to make it plain that all these groups of accounts are historically connected with one another. But the Genesis narratives are distinguished by their freedom from the polytheistic ingredients which disfigure the corresponding narratives elsewhere. They are on the elevated plane of that pure theism which is the kernel of the Hebrew faith. This whole subject is elucidated by Lenormant, in _The Beginnings of History_ (1882). The Book of _Joshua_ relates the history of the conquest of Canaan; _Judges_, the tale of the heroic age of Israel prior to the monarchy; the Books of _Samuel_ and of _Kings_, of the monarchy in its glory and its decline; the Books of _Chronicles_ treat of parts of the same era, more from the point of view of the priesthood; _Ruth_ is an idyl of the narrative type; _Ezra_, _Nehemiah_, and _Esther_ have to do with the return of the Jews from exile, and the events next following. The POETIC WRITINGS include the _Psalter_, by many authors; the _Proverbs_ of Solomon and others; _Ecclesiastes_, which gives the sombre reflections of one who had tasted to the full the pleasures and honors of life; the _Canticles_, or _Song of Solomon_, which depicts a young woman's love in its constancy, and victory over temptation. The PROPHETS are divided into four classes: i. Those of the early period from the twelfth to the ninth century, including _Samuel_, _Elijah_, _Eliska_, etc, who have left no prophetical writings. 2. The prophets of the Assyrian age (800-700 B.C.), where belong _Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah,_ and _Nahum_. 3. The prophets of the Babylonian age, _Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel_. Here some scholars would place a part of _Isaiah_. 4. The post-exilian prophets, _Haggai, Zachariah, Malackt, Jonah., Daniel, Joel, Obadiah_, and considerable portions of _Isaiah_ and _Jeremiah_. The APOCRYPHAL BOOKS belong between the closing of the Old-Testament canon and the New Testament. They are instructive as to that intermediate period. The _first_ Book of _Maccabees_ is specially important for its historical matter; the Books of _Wisdom_ and the _Son of Sirach_ for their moral reflections and precepts. WORKS RELATING TO HEBREW HISTORY.--EWALD, _History of the Israelitish People_ (Eng. trans., 5 vols.); Milman, _History of the Jews_ (3 vols.); Stade, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_ (2 vols., 1889); Renan, _History of the People of Israel_ (Eng. trans., 1896); Wellhausen. _Israelitische und judische Geschichte_ (3d ed., 1897); Kent, _History of the Hebrew People_ (1898); Guthe, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_ (1899); the Art. _Israel_ by Wellhausen, in the _Encycl. Brit_., and the one by Guthe in the _Encycl. Bibl._ The historical works of Jewish scholars, Herzfeld, Jost, Zunz, Graetz, DERENBOURG, etc., are valuable. CHAPTER V. THE PERSIANS. In the western part of the plateau of Iran, which extends from the Suleiman Mountains to the plains of Mesopotamia, were the _Medes_. On the southern border of the same plateau, along the Persian Gulf, were the _Persians_. Both were offshoots of the Aryan family, and had migrated westward from the region of the upper Oxus, from Bactria, the original seat of their religion. RELIGION.--The ancient religion of the Iranians, including the Medes and Persians, was reduced to a system by the Bactrian sage, _Zoroaster_ (or Zarathustra), who, in the absence of authentic knowledge respecting him, may be conjecturally placed at about 1000 B.C. The _Zendavesta_, the sacred book of the Parsees, the adherents of this religion, is composed of parts belonging to very different dates. It is the fragment of a more extensive literature no longer extant. The Bactrian religion differed from that of their Sanskrit-speaking kindred on the Indus, in being a form of dualism. It grew out of a belief in good demons or spirits, and in evil spirits, making up two hosts perpetually in conflict with each other. At the head of the host of good spirits, in the Zoroastrian creed, was _Ormuzd_, the creator, and the god of light; at the head of the evil host, was _Ahriman_, the god of darkness. The one made the world good, the other laid in it all that is evil. The one is disposed to bless man, the other to do him harm. The conflict of virtue and vice in man is a contest for control on the part of these antagonistic powers. In order to keep off the spirits of evil, one must avoid what is morally or ceremonially unclean. He who lived pure, went up at death to the spirits of light. The evil soul departed to consort with evil spirits in the region of darkness. _Mithra_, the sun-god in the Zoroastrian system, is the equal, though the creature, of _Ormuzd_. Mithra is the conqueror of darkness, and so the enemy of falsehood. The Medes and Persians were fire-worshipers. To the good spirits, they ascribed life, the fruitful earth, the refreshing waters, fountains and rivers, the tilled ground, pastures and trees, the lustrous metals, also truth and the pure deed. To the evil spirits belonged darkness, disease, death, the desert, cold, filth, sin, and falsehood. The animals were divided between the two realms. All that live in holes, all that hurt the trees and the crops, rats and mice, reptiles of all sorts, turtles, lizards, vermin, and noxious insects, were hateful creatures of _Ahriman_. To kill any of these was a merit. The dog was held sacred; as was also the cock, who announces the break of day. In the system of worship, sacrifices were less prominent than in India. Prayers, and the iteration of prayers, were of great moment. THE MAGI.--The Zoroastrian religion was not the same at all times and in every place. The primitive Iranian emigrants were monotheistic in their tendencies. In their western abodes, they came into contact with worshipers of the elements,--fire, air, earth, and water. It is thought by many scholars, that the _Magian_ system, with its more defined dualism and sacerdotal sway, was ingrafted on the native religion of the Iranians through the influence of tribes with whom they mingled in Media. The Magi, according to one account, were charged by Darius with corrupting the Zoroastrian faith and worship. Whatever may have been their origin, they became the leaders in worship, and privy-counselors to the sovereign. They were likewise astrologers, and interpreters of dreams. They were not so distinct a class as the priests in India. A hereditary order, they might still bring new members into their ranks. From the Medes, they were introduced among the Persians. PERSIAN RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS.--Peculiar customs existed among the Medes in disposing of the dead. They were not to be cast into the fire or the water, or buried in the earth, for this would bring pollution to what was sacred; but their bodies were to be exposed in the high rocks, where the beasts and birds could devour them. Sacrifices were offered on hill-tops. Salutations of homage were made to the rising sun. On some occasions, boys were buried alive, as an offering to the divinities. In early times, there were no images of the gods. As far as they were introduced in later times, it was through the influence of surrounding nations. In the supremacy and the final victory, which, in the later form of Zoroastrianism, were accorded to _Ormuzd_, there was again an approach to monotheism. Hostility to deception of all sorts, and thus to stealing, was a Persian trait. _Herodotus_ says that the Persians taught their children to ride, to shoot the bow, and to speak the truth. To prize the pursuits of agriculture and horticulture, was a part of their religion. They allowed a plurality of wives, and concubines with them; but there was one wife to whom precedence belonged. Voluntary celibacy in man or woman was counted a flagrant sin. HISTORY.--The first authentic notice that we have of the MEDES shows them under Assyrian power. This is in the time of _Shalmaneser II._, 840 B.C. Their rise is coincident with the fall of Assyria. _Phraortes_ (647-625 B.C.) began the Median struggle for independence; although the name of _Deioces_ is given by _Herodotus_ as a previous king, and the builder of _Ecbatana_ the capital. It was reserved for _Cyaxares_ (625-585 B.C.), having delivered his land from the Scythian marauders (p. 47), to complete, in conjunction with the Babylonian king, _Nabopolassar_, the work of breaking down the Assyrian empire (p. 48). He brought under his rule the _Bactrians_, and the _Persians_ about _Pasargadæ_ and _Persepolis_, and made the _Halys_, dividing Asia Minor, the limit of his kingdom. His effeminate son, _Astyages_, lost what his father had won. The Persian branch of the Iranians gained the supremacy. _Cyrus_, the leader of the Persian revolt, by whom _Astyages_ was defeated, is described as related to him; but this story, as well as the account of his being rescued from death and brought up among shepherds, is probably a fiction. CYRUS.--In the sixth century B.C., this famous ruler and conqueror became the founder of an empire which comprised nearly all the civilized nations of Asia. During his reign of thirty years (559-530 B.C.), he annexed to his kingdom the two principal states, LYDIA and BABYLON. The king of Lydia was _Croesus_, whose story, embellished with romantic details, was long familiar as a signal example of the mutations of fortune. Doomed to be burned after the capture of _Sardis_, his capital, he was heard, just when the fire was to be kindled, to say something about _Solon_. In answer to the inquiry of Cyrus, whose curiosity was excited, he related how that Grecian sage, after beholding his treasures, had refused to call him the most fortunate of men, on the ground that "no man can be called happy before his death," because none can tell what disasters may befall him. Cyrus, according to the narrative, touched by the tale, delivered Croesus from death, and thereafter bestowed on him honor and confidence. There is another form of the tradition, which is deemed by some more probable. Croesus is said to have stood on a pyre, intending to offer himself in the flames, to propitiate the god _Sandon_, that his people might be saved from destruction; but he was prevented, it is said, by unfavorable auguries. The subjection of the Greek colonies on the Asia-Minor coast followed upon the subjugation of Lydia. From these colonies, the _Phocoeans_ went forth, and founded _Elea_ in Lower Italy, and Massilia (Marseilles) in Gaul. The Asian Greek cities were each allowed its own municipal rulers, but paid tribute to the Persian master. The conquest of _Babylon_ (538 B.C.), as it opened the way for the return to Jerusalem of the Jewish exiles, enabled Cyrus to establish a friendly people in Judaea, as a help in fortifying his sway in Syria, and in opening a path to _Egypt_. But in 529 he lost his life in a war which he was waging against the _Massagetae_, a tribe on the Caspian, allied in blood to the Scythians. There was a tradition that the barbarian queen, _Tomyris_, enraged that Cyrus had overcome her son by deceit, dipped the slain king's head in a skin-bag of blood, exclaiming, "Drink thy fill of blood, of which thou couldst not have enough in thy lifetime!" CAMBYSES.--The successor of Cyrus, a man not less warlike than he, but more violent in his passions, reigned but seven years (529-522 B.C.). His most conspicuous achievement was the conquest of EGYPT. One ground or pretext of his hostility, according to the tale of Herodotus, was the fact that Amasis, the predecessor of _Psammeticus III._, not daring to refuse the demand of his daughter as a wife, to be second in rank to the Persian queen, had fraudulently sent, either to Cambyses, or, before his time, to Cyrus, _Nitetis_, the daughter of the king who preceded him, Apries. Defeated at _Pelusium_, and compelled to yield up _Memphis_ after a siege, it is said that Psammeticus, the _Psammenitus_ of Herodotus, the unfortunate successor of the powerful Pharaohs, was obliged to look on the spectacle of his daughters in the garb of working-women, bearing water, and to see his sons, with the principal young nobles, ordered to execution. But this tale lacks confirmation. His cruelties were probably of a later date, and were provoked by the chagrin he felt, and the satisfaction manifested by the people, at the failure of great expeditions which he sent southward for the conquest of _Meroe_, and westward against the _Oasis of Ammon_. His armies perished in the Lybian deserts. Even the story of his stabbing the sacred steer (_Apis_), after these events, although it may be true, is not sanctioned by the Egyptian inscriptions. His attack upon Ammon probably arose, in part at least, from a desire to possess himself of whatever lay between Egypt and the Carthaginian territory. But the Phoenician sailors who manned his fleet refused to sail against their brethren in Carthage. _Cambyses_ assumed the title and character of an Egyptian sovereign. The story of his madness is an invention of the Egyptian priests. DARIUS (521-485 B.C.).--For a short time, a pretender, a Magian, who called himself _Smerdis_, and professed to be the brother of Cambyses, usurped the throne. Cambyses is said to have put an end to his own life. After a reign of seven months, during which he kept himself for the most part hidden from view, Smerdis was destroyed by a rising of the leading Persian families. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, of the royal race of the _Achaemenidae_, succeeded. He married _Atossa_, the daughter of Cyrus. The countries which composed an Oriental empire were so loosely held together that the death of a despot or the change of a dynasty was very likely to call forth a general insurrection. Darius showed his military prowess in conquering anew various countries, including Babylon, which had revolted. He made Arabia tributary, and spread the bounds of his vast empire as far as India and in North Africa. A mighty expedition which he organized against the Scythians on the Lower Danube failed of the results that were hoped from it. The barbarians wasted their own fields, filled up their wells, drove off their cattle, and fled as the army of Darius advanced. He returned, however, with the bulk of his army intact, although with a loss of prestige, and enrolled "the Scyths beyond the sea" among the subjects of his empire. His armies conquered the tribes of _Thrace_, so that he pushed his boundaries to the frontiers of Macedonia. The rebellion of the Greek cities on the Asia-Minor coast he suppressed, and harshly avenged. Of his further conflicts with the Greeks on the mainland, more is to be said hereafter. He had built _Persepolis_, but his principal seat of government appears to have been _Susa_. He did a great work in organizing his imperial system. The division into _satrapies_--large districts, each under a _satrap_, or viceroy--was a part of this work. He thus introduced a more efficient and methodical administration into his empire,--an empire four times as large as the empire of Assyria, which it had swallowed up. GOVERNMENT.--Persia proper corresponded nearly to the modern province of _Farsistan_ or _Fars_. The Persian Empire stretched from east to west for a distance of about three thousand miles, and was from five hundred to fifteen hundred miles in width. It was more than half as large as modern Europe. It comprised not less than two millions of square miles. Its population under Darius may have been seventy or eighty millions. He brought in uniformity of administration. In each satrapy, besides the satrap himself, who was a despot within his own dominion, there was at first a commander of the troops, and a secretary, whose business it was to make reports to the GREAT KING. These three officers were really watchmen over one another. It was through spies ("eyes" and "ears") of the king that he was kept informed of what was taking place in every part of the empire. At length it was found necessary to give the satraps the command of the troops, which took away one important check upon their power. There was a regular system of taxation, but to this were added extraordinary and oppressive levies. Darius introduced a uniform coinage. The name of the coin, "daric," is probably not derived from his name, however. Notwithstanding the government by satraps, local laws and usages were left, to a large extent, undisturbed. Great roads, and postal communication for the exclusive use of the government, connected the capital with the distant provinces. In this point the Persians set an example which was followed by the Romans. From _Susa_ to _Sardis_, a distance of about seventeen hundred English miles, stretched a road, along which, at proper intervals, were caravansaries, and over which the fleet couriers of the king rode in six or seven days. The king was an absolute lord and master, who disposed of the lives and property of his subjects without restraint. To him the most servile homage was paid. He lived mostly in seclusion in his palace. On great occasions he sat at banquet with his nobles. His throne was made of gold, silver, and ivory. All who approached him kissed the earth. His ordinary dress was probably of the richest silk. He took his meals mostly by himself. His fare was made up of the choicest delicacies. His seraglio, guarded by eunuchs, contained a multitude of inmates, brought together by his arbitrary command, over whom, in a certain way, the queen-mother presided. His chief diversions were playing at dice within doors, and hunting without. _Paradises_, or parks, walled in, planted with trees and shrubbery, and furnished with refreshing fountains and streams, were his hunting-ground. Such inclosures were the delight of all Persians. In war he was attended with various officers in close attendance on his person,--the stool-bearer, the bow-bearer, etc. In peace, there was another set, among whom was "the parasol-bearer,"--for to be sheltered by the parasol was an exclusive privilege of the king,--the fan-bearer, etc. There were certain privileged families,--six besides the royal clan of the _Achæmenidæ_, the chiefs of all of which were his counselors, and from whom he was bound to choose his legitimate wives. When the monarch traveled, even on military expeditions, he was accompanied by the whole varied apparatus of luxury which ministered to his pleasures in the court,--costly furniture, a vast retinue of attendants, of inmates of the harem, etc. ARMY AND NAVY.--The arms of the footman were a sword, a spear, and a bow. Persian bowmen were skillful. Persian cavalry, both heavy and light, were their most effective arm. The military leaders depended on the celerity of their horsemen and the weight of their numbers. It is doubtful whether they employed military engines. They were not wholly ignorant of strategy. Their troops were marshaled by nations, each in its own costume, the commander of the whole being in the center of the line of battle. The body-guard of the king was "the Immortals," a body of ten thousand picked footmen, the number being always kept intact. The enemies of the Persians, except in the case of rebels, were not treated with inhumanity. In this regard the Persians are in marked contrast with the Semitic ferocity of the Assyrians. Their navies were drawn from the subject-peoples. The _trireme_, with its projecting prow shod with iron, and its crew of two hundred men, was the principal, but not the only vessel used in sea-fights. LITERATURE AND ART.--A Persian youth was ordinarily taught to read, but there was little intellectual culture. Boys were trained in athletic exercises. It was a discipline in hardy and temperate habits. Etiquette, in all ranks of the people, was highly esteemed. The Persians, as a nation, were bright-minded, and not deficient in fancy and imagination. But they contributed little to science. Their religious ideas were an heirloom from remote ancestors. The celebrated Persian poet, _Firdousí_, lived in the tenth century of our era. His great poem, the _Shahnameh_, or Book of Kings, is a storehouse of ancient traditions. It is probable that the ancient poetry of the Persians, like this production, was of moderate merit. Of the Persian architecture and sculpture, we derive our knowledge from the massive ruins of _Persepolis_, which was burned by Alexander the Great, and from the remains of other cities. They had learned from Assyria and Babylon, but they display no high degree of artistic talent. They were not an intellectual people: they were soldiers and rulers. LITERATURE--Works mentioned on pp 16, 42; _Encycl. Brit.,_ Art. Persia; Vaux, Persia from the Monuments (1876); Nöldeke, _Aufsdtze zur persischen Geschichte_ (1887); Justi, _Geschichte trans_ (1900); Markham, _General Sketch of the History of Persia_ (1874). RETROSPECT. In Eastern Asia the _Chinese nation_ was built up, the principal achievement of the Mongolian race. Its influence was restricted to neighboring peoples of kindred blood. Its civilization, having once attained to a certain stage of progress, remained for the most part stationary. China, in its isolation, exerted no power upon the general course of history. Not until a late age, when the civilization of the Caucasian race should be developed, was the culture of China to produce, in the mingling of the European and Asiatic peoples, its full fruits, even for China herself. _India_--although the home of a Caucasian immigrant people, a people of the Aryan family too--was cut off by special causes from playing an effective part, either actively or passively, in the general historic movement. _Egypt_, from 1500 to 1300 B.C., was the leading community of the ancient world. But civilization in Egypt, at an early date, crystallized in an unchanging form. The aim was to preserve unaltered what the past had brought out. The bandaged mummy, the result of the effort to preserve even the material body of man for all future time, is a type of the leaden conservatism which pervaded Egyptian life. The pre-eminence of Egypt was lost by the rise of the Semitic states to increasing power. _Semitic_ arms and culture were in the ascendant for six centuries (1300 to 700 B.C.). _Babylonia_ shares with Egypt the distinction of being one of the two chief fountains of culture. From Babylonia, astronomy, writing, and other useful arts were disseminated among the other Semitic peoples. It was a strong state even before 2000 B.C. Babylon was a hive of industry, and was active in trade, a link of intercourse between the East and the West. But this function of an intermediate was discharged still more effectively by the _Phoenicians_, the first great commercial and naval power of antiquity. _Tyre_ reached the acme of its prosperity under _Hiram_, the contemporary of _Solomon_, about 1000 B.C. Meantime, among the Hebrew people, the foundations of the true religion had been laid,--that religion of monotheism which in future ages was to leaven the nations. Contemporaneously, the _Assyrian Monarchy_ was rising to importance on the banks of the Tigris. The appearance, "in the first half of the ninth century B.C., of a power advancing from the heart of Asia towards the West, is an event of immeasurable importance in the history of the world." The _Israelites_ were divided. About the middle of the eighth century B.C., both of their kingdoms lost their independence. Assyria was vigorous in war, but had no deep foundation of national life. "Its religion was not rooted in the soil, like that of Egypt, nor based on the observation of the sky and stars, like that of Babylon." "Its gods were gods of war, manifesting themselves in the prowess of ruling princes." The main instrument in effecting the downfall of Assyria was the _Medo-Persian_ power. Through the _Medes_ and _Persians_, the Aryan race comes forward into conspicuity and control. One branch of the Iranians of Bactria, entering _India_, through the agency of climate and other physical influences converted their religion into a mystical and speculative pantheism, and their social organization into a caste-system under the rule of a priesthood. The Medes and Persians, under other circumstances, in contact with tribes about them, turned their religion into a dualism, yet with a monotheistic drift that was not wholly extinguished. The conquest of Babylon by _Cyrus_ annihilated Semitic power. The fall of _Lydia_, the conquest of _Egypt_ by _Cambyses_, and the victories of _Darius_, brought the world into subjection to Persian rule. The dates of some of the most important historical events in this Section are as follow Menes, the first historic king of Egypt....... about 4000 B.C. Accession of Ramses II. to the Egyptian throne...... 1340 B.C. Rise of the Babylonian kingdom................ about 4000 B.C. Reign of Hiram at Tyre, and of Solomon........ about 950 B.C. Assyrian captivity: downfall of Israel............... 722 B.C. Fall of Nineveh...................................... 606 B.C. Babylonian captivity: downfall of Judah.............. 586 B.C. Reign of Cyrus begins................................ 559 B.C. Fall of Lydia: capture of Sardis..................... 546 B.C. Fall of Babylon...................................... 538 B.C. Reign of Darius begins............................... 521 B.C. BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION.--In the history of _Western Asia_ we discern the beginnings of civilization and of the true religion. In the room of useless and destructive tribal warfare, great numbers are banded together under despotic rule. CITIES were built, where property and life could be protected, and within whose massive walls of vast circumference the useful arts and the rudiments of science could spring up. Trade and commerce, by land and sea, naturally followed. Thus nations came to know one another. Aggressive war and subjugation had a part in the same result. The power of the peoples of western Asia, the guardians of infant civilization, availed to keep back the hordes of barbarians on the north, or, as in the case of the great Scythian invasion (p. 47), to drive them back to their own abodes. DEFECTS OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION.--But the civilization of the Asiatic empires had radical and fatal defects. The development of human nature was in some one direction, to the exclusion of other forms of human activity. As to knowledge, it was confined within a limit beyond which progress was slow. The _geometry_ of Egypt and the _astronomy_ of Babylon remained where the necessity of the pyramid-builders and the superstition of the astrologers had carried them. Even the art of war was in a rudimental stage. In battle, huge multitudes were precipitated upon one another. There are some evidences of strategy, when we reach the campaigns of Cyrus. But war was full of barbarities,--the destruction of cities, the expatriation of masses of people, the pitiless treatment of captives. _Architecture_ exhibits magnitude without elegance. Temples, palaces, and tombs are monuments of labor rather than creations of art. They impress oftener by their size than by their beauty. _Statuary_ is inert and massive, and appears inseparable from the buildings to which it is attached. _Literature_, with the exception of the Hebrew, is hardly less monotonous than art. The religion of the Semitic nations, the _Hebrews_ excepted, so far from containing in it a purifying element, tended to degrade its votaries by feeding the flame of sensual and revengeful passion. What but debasement could come from the worship of Astarte and the Phoenician El? The great empires did not assimilate the nations which they comprised. They were bound, but not in the least fused, together. Persia went farther than any other empire in creating a uniform administration, but even the Persian Empire remained a conglomerate of distinct peoples. ORIENTAL GOVERNMENT.--The government of the Oriental nations was a despotism. It was not a government of laws, but the will of the one master was omnipotent. The counterpart of tyranny in the ruler was cringing, abject servility in the subject. Humanity could not thrive, man could not grow to his full stature, under such a system. It was on the soil of Europe and among the Greeks that a better type of manhood and a true idea of liberty were to spring up. DIVISION II. EUROPE. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--The Alps, continued on the west by the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian mountains, and carried eastward to the Black Sea by the Balkan range, form an irregular line, that separates the three peninsulas of Spain, Italy, and Greece from the great plain of central Europe. On the north of this plain, there is a corresponding system of peninsulas and islands, where the Baltic answers in a measure to the Mediterranean. This midland sea, which at once unites and separates the three continents, is connected with the Atlantic by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, and on the east is continued in the Aegean Sea, or the Archipelago, which leads into the Hellespont, or the Strait of the Dardanelles, thence onward into the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora, and through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azoff beyond. From the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean the Mediterranean is parted by a space which is now traversed by a canal. The irregularity of the coast-line is one of the characteristic features of the European continent. Especially are the northern shores of the Mediterranean indented by arms of the sea; and this, along with the numerous islands, marks out the whole region as remarkably adapted to maritime life and commercial intercourse. ITS INHABITANTS.--Europe was early inhabited by branches of the _Aryan_ race. The cradle or primitive seat of the Aryan family --from which its two main divisions, the European and the Asiatic, went forth--is not known. It is a matter of theory and debate. We find the _Graeco-Latin_ peoples on the south, the more central nations of _Celtic_ speech, the more northern _Teutons_, and in the north-east the _Slavonians_. But how all these Aryan branches are mutually related, and of the order and path of their prehistoric migrations, little is definitely known. The _Celts_ were evidently preceded by _non-Aryan_ inhabitants, of whom the _Basques_ in Spain and France are a relic. The _Celtiberians_ in Spain, as the name implies, were a mixture of the _Celts_ with the native non-Aryan _Iberians_. The _Greeks_ and the _Italians_ had a common ancestry, as we know by their languages; but of that common ancestry neither Greeks nor Latins in the historic period retained any recollection; nor can we safely affirm, that, of that earlier stock, they alone were the offspring. "All the known Indo-European languages," writes Professor Whitney, "are descended from a single dialect, which must have been spoken at some time in the past by a single limited community, by the spread and emigration of which--not, certainly, without incorporating also bodies of other races than that to which itself belonged by origin--it has reached its present wide distribution." "Of course, it would be a matter of the highest interest to determine the place and period of this important community, were there any means of doing so; but that is not the case, at least at present." "The condition of these languages is reconcilable with any possible theory as to the original site of the family." "One point is established, that 'the separation of the five European branches must have been later than their common separation from the two Asiatic branches,' the Iranians and Indians." (Whitney's _The Life and Growth of Language_, pp. 191, 193.) SECTION I. GRECIAN HISTORY. THE LAND.--"Greeks" is not a name which the people who bore it applied to themselves. It was a name given them by their kinsfolk, the Romans. They called themselves _Hellenes_, and their land they called _Hellas_. Hellas, or Greece proper, included the southern portion of the peninsula of which it is a part, the portion bounded on the north by Olympus and the Cambunian Mountains, and extending south to the Mediterranean. Its shores were washed on the east by the Aegean, on the west by the Adriatic, or Ionian Gulf. The length of Hellas was about two hundred and fifty English miles: its greatest width, measured on the northern frontier, or from Attica on a line westward, was about a hundred and eighty miles. It is somewhat smaller than Portugal. Along its coast are many deep bays. Long and narrow promontories run out into the sea. Thus a great length is given to the sea-coast, which abounds in commodious harbors. The tideless waters are safe for navigators. Scattered within easy distance of the shore are numerous islands of great fertility and beauty. So high and rugged are the mountains that communication between different places is commonly easier by water than by land. A branch of the Alps at the forty-second parallel of latitude turns to the south-east, and descends to _Toenarum_, the southern promontory. On either side, lateral branches are sent off, at short intervals, to the east and the west. From these in turn, branches, especially on the east, are thrown out in the same direction as the main ridge; that is, from north to south. Little room is left for plains of much extent. _Thessaly_, with its single river, the _Peneus_, was such a plain. There were no navigable rivers. Most of the streams were nothing more than winter-torrents, whose beds were nearly or quite dry in the summer. They often groped their way to the sea through underground channels, either beneath lakes or in passages which the streams themselves bored through limestone. The physical features of the country fitted it for the development of small states, distinct from one another, yet, owing especially to the relations of the land to the sea, full of life and movement. THE GRECIAN STATES.--The territory of Greece included (1) Northern Greece, comprising all north of the Malian (Zeitoum) and Ambracian (Arta) gulfs; (2) Central Greece, extending thence to the Gulf of Corinth; (3) the peninsula of Peloponnesus (Morea) to the south of the isthmus. The country was occupied, in the flourishing days of Greece, by not less than seventeen states. _Northern Greece_ contained two principal countries, _Thessaly_ and _Epirus_, separated from one another by the _Pindus_. Thessaly was the largest and most fertile of the Grecian states. The _Peneus_, into which poured the mountain streams, passed to the sea through a narrow gorge, the famous _Vale of Tempe_. In the mountainous region of _Epirus_ were numerous streams flowing through the valleys. Within it was the ancient _Dodona_, the seat of the oracle. _Magnesia_, east of Thessaly, on the coast, comprised within it the two ranges of _Ossa_ and _Pelion_. _Central Greece_ contained eleven states. _Malis_ had on its eastern edge the pass of _Thermopylae_. In _Phocis_, on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus, was _Delphi_. _Boeotia_ was distinguished for the number and size of its cities, the chief of which was _Thebes_. _Attica_ projected from Boeotia to the south-east, its length being seventy miles, and its greatest width thirty miles. Its area was only about seven hundred and twenty square miles. It was thus only a little more than half as large as the State of Rhode Island, which has an area of thirteen hundred and six square miles. Its only important town was _Athens_. Its rivers, the _Ilissus_ and the two _Cephissusses_, were nothing more than torrent courses. In _Southern Greece_ were eleven countries. The territory of _Corinth_ embraced most of the isthmus, and a large tract in Peloponnesus. It had but one considerable city, _Corinth_, which had two ports,--one on the Corinthian Gulf, _Lechoeum_, and the other on the Saronic Gulf, _Cenchreae_. _Arcadia_, the central mountain country, has been called the Switzerland of Peloponnesus. It comprised numerous important towns, as _Mantinea_, _Orchomenus_, and, in later times, _Megalopolis_. In the south-east was _Laconia_, with an area of about nineteen hundred square miles. It consisted mainly of the valley of the _Eurotas_, which lay between the lofty mountain ranges of _Parnon_ and _Taygetus_. "Hollow Lacedaemon" was a phrase descriptive of its situation. _Sparta_, the capital, was on the _Eurotas_, twenty miles from the sea. It had no other important city. _Argolis_, projecting into the sea, eastward of Arcadia, had within it the ancient towns of _Mycenae_ and _Argos_. THE ISLANDS.--It must be remembered that the waters between Europe and Asia were not a separating barrier, but a close bond of connection. There is scarcely a single point "where, in clear weather, a mariner would feel himself left in a solitude between sky and water; the eye reaches from island to island, and easy voyages of a day lead from bay to bay." Greek towns, including very ancient places, were scattered along the western coast of Asia Minor, between the mountains and the shore. The Aegean was studded with Greek islands. These, together with the islands in the Ionian Sea, on the west, formed a part of Greek territory. The principal island near Greece was _Euboea_, stretching for a hundred miles along the east coast of Attica, Boeotia, and Locris. On the opposite side of the peninsula, west of Epirus, was the smaller but yet large island of _Corcyra_ (Corfu). On the west, besides, were _Ithaca_, _Cephallenia_, and _Zacynthus_ (Zante); on the south, the _Oenussae_ Islands and _Cythera_; on the east, _Aegina_, _Salamis_, etc. From the south-eastern shores of Euboea and Attica, the _Cyclades_ and _Sporades_ extended in a continuous series, "like a set of stepping-stones," across the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor. From Corcyra and the Acroceraunian promontory, one could descry, in clear weather, the Italian coast. These were all littoral islands. Besides these, there were other islands in the northern and central Aegean, such as _Lemnos_, _Samothrace_, _Delos_, _Naxos_, etc.; and in the southern Aegean, _Crete_, an island mountainous but fertile, a hundred and fifty miles in length from east to west, and about fifteen in breadth, and containing more than two thousand square miles. The Greek race was still more widely diffused through the settlements in and about the western Mediterranean. THE BOND OF RACE.--The Greeks, or Hellenes, were not so much a nation as a united race. Politically divided, they were conscious of a fraternal bond that connected them, wherever they might be found, and parted them from the rest of mankind. Their sense of brotherhood is implied in the fabulous belief in a common ancestor named _Hellen_. Together with a fellowship in _blood_, there was a community in _language_, notwithstanding minor differences in dialect. Moreover, there was a common religion. They worshiped the same gods. They had the same ritual, and cherished in common the same beliefs respecting things supernatural. In connection with these ties of _blood_, of _language_, and of _religion_, they celebrated together great national festivals, like the Olympic games, in which Greeks from all parts of the world might take part, and into which they entered with a peculiar enthusiasm. As the Jews, following the impulses of a holier faith, went up to Jerusalem to celebrate as one family their sacred rites; so the Greeks repaired to hallowed shrines of Zeus or Apollo, assembling from afar on the plain of Olympia and at the foot of Parnassus. DIVISIONS OF GREEK HISTORY. Greek history embraces _three general periods_. The first is the formative period, and extends to the Persian wars, 500 B.C. The second period covers the flourishing era of Greece, from 500 B.C. to 359 B.C. The third is the Macedonian period, when the freedom of Greece was lost,--the era of Philip and Alexander, and of Alexander's successors. PERIOD I. is divided into (1) the mythical or prehistoric age, extending to 776 B.C.; (2) the age of the formation of the principal states. PERIOD II. includes (1) the Persian wars, 502-479 B.C.; (2) the period of Athenian supremacy, 478-431 B.C.; (3) the Peloponnesian war, 431-404 B.C., with the Spartan, followed by the Theban ascendency, 404-362 B.C. PERIOD III. includes (1) the reigns of Philip and Alexander, 359-323 B.C.; (2) the kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander was divided. PERIOD I. GREECE PRIOR TO THE PERSIAN WARS. CHAPTER I. THE PREHISTORIC AGE. ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS--Before the Hellenes parted from their Aryan ancestry, they had words for "father," "mother," "brother," "son," and "daughter," as well as for certain connections by marriage. They lived in houses, pastured flocks and herds, possessed dogs and horses. They had for weapons, the sword and the bow. "They knew how to work gold, silver, and copper; they could count up to a hundred; they reckoned time by the lunar month; they spoke of the sky as the 'heaven-father.'" The differences between the Greek and the Latin languages prove, also, that the Greeks and Italians, after their common progenitors broke off from the primitive Aryan stock, had long dwelt apart. The Greeks, when they first become known to us in historical times, consist of two great branches, the _Dorians_ and _Ionians,_ together with a less distinct branch, the _Aeolians,_ which differs less, perhaps, from the parent _Hellenes_ than do the two divisions just named. It is a probable opinion of scholars, that the halting-place of the Hellenes, whence, in successive waves, they passed over into Greece, was _Phrygia,_ in the north-west of Asia Minor. Preceding the Greeks both in northern Greece and in Peloponnesus, and spread over the coasts and islands of the Archipelago, was a people of whom they had an indistinct knowledge, whom they called _Pelasgians._ They were husbandmen or herdsmen. Their national sanctuary was at _Dodona,_ in Epirus. The "Cyclopean" ruins, composed of huge polygonal blocks of stone, which they left behind in various places, are the remnant of their walls and fortifications. The Greeks looked back on these Pelasgian predecessors as different from themselves. Yet no reminiscences existed of any hostility towards them. It is plausibly conjectured that this prehistoric people were emigrants from the region of Phrygia at a more ancient date, and that the Hellenes, a more energetic and gifted branch of the same stock, followed them, and, without force or conflict, became the founders and leaders of a new historic movement, in which the Pelasgians disappeared from view. In this second migration, the ancestors of the _Ionians_ went down from Phrygia to the coast of Asia Minor, and began the career which made them a maritime and commercial people. The _Dorians_ crossed over to the highlands of northern Greece, where they became hardy mountaineers, not addicted to the sea. The one tribe were to be eventually the founders of _Athens_; the other, of _Sparta_. Besides these two main tribes, the _Aeolians_ occupied Thessaly, Boeotia, Aetolia, and other districts. To them the _Achaeans_, who were supreme in Peloponnesus in the days of Homer, were allied. FOREIGN INFLUENCES.--Besides Phrygia, the legends of the Greeks bear traces of a foreign influence from _Phoenicia_ and _Egypt_. The Phoenicians were unquestionably early connected with the Greeks, first by commercial visits to Greek ports, to which they brought foreign merchandise. The story of _Cadmus_, who is said to have founded _Thebes_, and to have brought in the Phoenician alphabet, is fabulous. But it is probable, that, as early as the close of the ninth century B.C., the _alphabet_ was introduced by Phoenicians, and diffused over Greece. Another legend is that of _Cecrops_, conceived of later as an Egyptian, who is said to have built a citadel at Athens, and to have imported the seeds of civilization and religion. _Danaus_, another emigrant from Egypt, coming with his fifty daughters, is said to have built the citadel of _Argos_. In the later times, the Greeks were fond of tracing their knowledge of the arts to Egyptian sources. It is remarkable that the agents by whom germs of civilization were said to have been imported from abroad, though foreign, are nevertheless depicted as thoroughly Greek in their character. Whatever the Greeks may have owed to Egypt, it is probable was mainly derived from Ionians who had previously planted themselves in that country. THE DORIAN EMIGRATION.--It was in the prehistoric time that the Dorians left their homes in northern Greece, and migrated into Peloponnesus, where they proved themselves stronger than the Ionians and the Achaeans dwelling there. They left the Achaeans on the south coast of the Corinthian Gulf, in the district called Achaia. Nor did they conquer Arcadia. But of most of Peloponnesus they became masters. This is the portion of historic truth contained in the myth of the _Return of the Heraclidae_, the descendants of Hercules, to the old kingdom of their ancestor. MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR.--The Dorian conquest is said to have been the cause of three distinct migrations to Asia Minor. The Achaeans, with their Aeolic kinsmen on the north, established themselves on the north-west coast of Asia Minor, _Lesbos_ and _Cyme_ being their strongholds, and by degrees got control in _Mysia_ and the _Troad_. Ionic emigrants from Attica joined their brethren on the same coast. The Dorians settled on the south-west coast; they also settled _Cos_ and _Rhodes_, and at length subdued _Crete_. The Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus, and the migrations just spoken of, were slow in their progress, and possibly stretched over centuries. CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS.--_Originality_ is a distinguishing trait of the Greeks. Whatever they borrowed from others they made their own, and reproduced in a form peculiar to themselves. They were never servile copyists. All the products of the Greek mind, whether in government, art, literature, or in whatever province of human activity, wear a peculiar stamp. When we leave Asiatic ground, and come into contact with the Greeks, we find ourselves in another atmosphere. A spirit of humanity, in the broad sense of the term, pervades their life. A regard for reason, a sense of order, a disposition to keep every thing within measure, is a marked characteristic. Their sense of form--including a perception of beauty, and of harmony and proportion--made them in politics and letters the leaders of mankind. "Do nothing in excess," was their favorite maxim. They hated every thing that was out of proportion. Their language, without a rival in flexibility and symmetry and in perfection of sound, is itself, though a spontaneous creation, a work of art. "The whole language resembles the body of an artistically trained athlete, in which every muscle, every sinew, is developed into full play, where there is no trace of tumidity or of inert matter, and all is power and life." The great variety of the spiritual gifts of this people, the severest formulas of science, the loftiest flights of imagination, the keenest play of wit and humor, were capable of precise and effective expression in this language "as in ductile play." The use of the language, so lucid and so nice in its discriminations, was itself an education for the young who grew up to hear it and to speak it. In a genial yet invigorating climate, in a land where breezes from the mountain and the sea were mingled, the versatile Greeks produced by physical training that vigor and grace of body which they so much admired; and they developed the civil polity, the artistic discernment, and the complex social life, which made them the principal source of modern culture. Their moral traits are not so admirable. As a race they were less truthful, and less marked for their courage and loyalty, than some other peoples below them in intellect. RELIGION.--In the early days, when Greece was open to foreign influences, the simple religion of the Aryan fathers was enlarged by new elements from abroad. The Tyrian deity, Melkart, appears at Corinth as _Melicertes_. Astarte becomes _Aphrodite_ (Venus), who springs from the sea. The myth of _Dionysus_ and the worship of _Demeter_ (Ceres) may be of foreign origin. _Poseidon_ (Neptune), the god of the sea, and _Apollo_, the god of light and of healing, whose worship carried in it cheer and comfort, though they were brought into Greece, were previously known to the lonians. By _Homer_ and _Hesiod_, the great poets of the prehistoric age, the gods in these successive dynasties, their offices and mutual relations, were depicted. In Hesiod they stand in a connected scheme or theogony. 1. There are the twelve great gods and goddesses of Olympus, who were named by the Greeks,--Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Arês, Hêphaestos, Hermês, Hêrê, Athênê, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestia, Dêmêtêr. 2. Numerous other divinities, not included among the Olympic, but some not less important than the twelve. Such are Hadês, Hêlíos, Dionysus, the Charites, the Muses, the Nereids, the Nymphs, etc. 3. Deities who perform special service to the greater gods,--Iris, Hêbe, the Horae;, etc. 4. Deities whose personality is less distinct,--Atê, Eris, Thanatos, Hypnos, etc. 5. Monsters, progeny of the gods,--the Harpies, the Gorgons, Pegasus, Chimaera, Cerberus, Scylla and Charybdis, the Centaurs, the Sphinx. Below the gods are the demigods or heroes. LEGENDS OF HEROES.--The space which precedes the beginning of authentic records, the Greeks filled up with mythical tales, in which gods and heroes are the central figures. The heroes are partly of divine parentage. They are in near intercourse with the deities. Their deeds are superhuman, and embody those ideals of character and of achievement which the early Greeks cherished. The production of a lively imagination, before the dawn of the critical faculty or the growth of reflection, these tales may yet include a nucleus of historical incident or vague reminiscences of historical relations and changes. To attempt to extract these from the fictitious form in which they are embodied, is for the most part hopeless. The exploits of _Heracles_ (Hercules) have a prominent place in the legends. This hero of Argos submitted to serve a cruel tyrant, but, by prodigious labors (twelve in number), delivered men from dangerous beasts,--the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion, etc.,--and performed other miraculous services. _Theseus_, the national hero of Attica, cleared the roads of savage robbers, and delivered his country from bondage. _Minos_, the mythical legislator of Crete, cleared the sea of pirates, and founded a maritime state. Of the legendary stories, three of the most famous are _The Seven against Thebes The Argonautic Expedition_, and _The Trojan War_. I. _Laius_, king of Thebes, was told by an oracle that he should be killed by his son. He exposed him, therefore, as soon as he was born, on Mount Cithaeron. Saved by a herdsman, Oedipus was brought up by Polybus, king of Corinth, as his own son. Warned by the oracle that he should kill his father, and marry his mother, the son forsook Corinth, and made his abode at Thebes. Meeting Laius in a narrow pass, and provoked by his attendants, he slew them and him. At Thebes there was a female monster, the Sphinx, who propounded a riddle, and each day devoured a man until it should be solved. Oedipus won the prize which the Queen _Jocaste_ had offered; namely, the crown and her own hand to whomsoever should free the city. When his two sons and daughters had grown up, a pestilence broke out; and the oracle demanded that the murderer of Laius should be banished. Oedipus, in spite of the warnings of the blind priest, _Tiresias_, finds out the truth. He puts out his eyes, and is driven into exile by his sons, whom he curses. Under the guidance of his daughter _Antigone_, he finds a resting-place at _Colonus_, a suburb of Athens, in a grove of the _Eumenides_, whose function it was to avenge such crimes as his. He received expiation at the hands of _Theseus_, and died in a calm and peaceful way. This legend was the basis of some of the finest of the Greek dramas, "Oedipus Tyrannus," and the "Oedipus at Colonus" of _Sophocles_, and "The Seven against Thebes" of _Aeschylus_. The curse of Oedipus still rested on his sons. The story of _Antigone_, defying the tyrant _Creon_, and burying her slain brother, _Polynices_, is the foundation of the drama of _Sophocles_, bearing her name. Finally, the _Epigoni_, descendants of the Seven who had fought Thebes, captured and destroyed that city. 2. _Argonauts_ were described as a band of heroes, who, through perilous and unknown seas, sailed from Iolcos in Thessaly, in the ship "Argo," to Colchis, whence they brought away the golden fleece which had been stolen, and which they found nailed to an oak, and guarded by a sleepless dragon. _Jason_, the leader, was accompanied on his return by the enchantress, _Medea_, who had aided him. She, in order to delay their pursuers, killed her brother _Absyrtus_, and threw his body, piece by piece, into the sea. Her subsequent story involves various other tragic events. 3. The most noted of the legends is the story of the Trojan war. The deeds of the heroes of this war are the subject of the _Iliad_. _Paris_, son of Priam, king of _Ilios_ (Troy), in Asia Minor, carried off _Helen_, the wife of _Menelaus_, king of Sparta. To recover her, the Greeks united in an expedition against Troy, which they took after a siege of ten years. Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus (Ulysses), Ajax son of Telamon, and Ajax son of Oileus, Diomedes, and Nestor were among the chiefs on the Greek side. Troy had its allies. The "Odyssey" relates to the long journey of _Odysseus_ on his return to Ithaca, his home. That there was an ancient city, Troy, is certain. A conflict between the Greeks and a kindred people there, is probable. Not unlikely, there was a military expedition of Grecian tribes. Every thing beyond this is either plainly myth, or incapable of verification. UNIONS OF TRIBES.--During the period when the Greek population was dispersing itself in the districts which its different fractions occupied in the historic ages, there arose unions among tribes near one another, for religious purposes. They preceded treaties and alliances of the ordinary kind. Such tribes agreed to celebrate, in common, certain solemn festivals. Deputies of these tribes met at stated intervals to look after the temple and the lands pertaining to it. Out of these unions, there grew stipulations relative to the mode of conducting war and other matters of common interest. Treaties of peace and of mutual defense might follow. Thus arose combinations of states, in which one state, the strongest, would have the _hegemony_, or lead. This became an established characteristic of Greek political life. It was a system of federal unions under the headship of the most powerful member of the confederacy. When such a union was formed, it established a common worship or festival. THE DELPHIC AMPHICTYONY.--In the north of Greece, there was formed, in early times, a great religious union. It was composed of twelve tribes banded together for the worship of _Apollo_ at _Delphi_, and to guard his temple. It was called the Delphic Amphictyony, or "League of Neighbors." The members of this body agreed not to destroy one another's towns in war, and not to cut off running water from a town which they were besieging. THE DELPHIC ORACLE.--The sanctuary at Delphi, where the Amphictyonic Council met, became the most famous temple in Greece. Here the oracle of Apollo gave answers to those who came to consult that divinity. The priests who managed the temple kept themselves well informed in regard to occurrences in distant places. Their answers were often discreet and wholesome, but not unfrequently obscure and ambiguous, and thus misleading. In early times their moral influence in the nation promoted justice and fraternal feeling. In later times they lost their reputation for honesty and impartiality. In civil wars the priests were sometimes bribed to support one of the contending parties. THE HOMERIC POEMS.--Within the last century, there has been much discussion about the authorship of the two poems, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. The place where they were composed, whether among the Ionians in Greece proper or in Asia Minor, is still a matter of debate. It was probably Asia Minor. Seven places contended for the honor of having given birth to the blind bard. But nothing is known of Homer's birthplace or history. It is doubtful whether the art of writing was much, if at all, in use among the Greeks at the time of the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey. We know that the custom existed of repeating poems orally by minstrels or _rhapsodists_ at popular festivals. This may have been the mode in which for a time the Homeric poems were preserved and transmitted. The Odyssey has more unity than the Iliad, and seems to be of a somewhat later date. The nucleus of the Iliad is thought by some scholars to be embedded in the group of poems which, it is supposed, constitute the work at present; but there is no evidence making it possible to identify any portion as the work of Homer. Whatever may be the truth on these questions, the Iliad and Odyssey present an invaluable picture of Greek life in the period when they were composed, which was probably as early as 900 B.C. SOCIAL LIFE IN THE HOMERIC AGE.--(1) _Government._ In the Homeric portraiture of Greek life, there are towns; but the tribe is predominant over the town. The tribe is ruled by a king, who is not like an Eastern despot, but has about him a council of chiefs, and is bound by the _themistes_, the traditional customs. There is, besides, the _agora_, or popular assembly, where debates take place among the chiefs, and to which their decisions, or rather the decision of the king, on whom it devolves finally to determine every thing, are communicated. Public speaking, it is seen, is practiced in the infancy of Greek society. (2) _Customs._ People live in hill-villages, surrounded by walls. Life is patriarchal, and, as regards the domestic circle, humane. Polygamy, the plague of Oriental society, does not exist. Women are held in high regard. Slavery is everywhere established. Side by side with piracy and constant war, and the supreme honor given to military prowess, there is a fine and bountiful hospitality which is held to be a religious duty. In the Homeric poems, there is often exhibited a noble refinement of thought and sentiment, and a gentle courtesy. (3) _Arts and Industry_. In war, the chariot is the engine: cavalry are unknown. The useful arts are in a rudimental stage. Spinning and weaving are the constant occupation of women. All garments are made at home: noble women join with their slaves in washing them in the river. The condition of the common freeman who took one temporary job after another, was miserable. Of the condition of those who pursued special occupations,--as the carpenter, the leather-dresser, the fisherman, etc.,--we have no adequate information. The principal metals were in use, and the art of forging them. There was no coined money: payment was made in oxen. But there is hereditary individual property in land, cultivated vineyards, temples of the gods, and splendid palaces of the chiefs. (4) _Geographical Knowledge._ In Homer, there is a knowledge of Greece, of the neighboring islands, and western Asia Minor. References to other lands are vague. The earth is a sort of flat oval, with the River Oceanus flowing round it. _Hesiod_ is better informed about places: he knows something of the Nile and of the Scythians, and of some places as far west as Syracuse. RELIGION IN THE HOMERIC AGE.--The Homeric poems give us a full idea of the early religious ideas and practices, (I) _The Nature of the Gods_.--The gods in Homer are human beings with greatly magnified powers. Their dwelling is in the sky above us: their special abode is Mount Olympus. They experience hunger, but feed on ambrosia and nectar. They travel with miraculous speed. Their prime blessing is exemption from mortality. Among themselves they are often discordant and deceitful. (2) _Relation of the Gods to Men_. They are the rulers and guides of nations. Though they act often from mere caprice or favoritism, their sway is, on the whole, promotive of justice. Zeus is supreme: none can contend with him successfully. The gods hold communication with men. They also make known their will and intentions by signs and portents,--such as thunder and lightning, or the sudden passing of a great bird of prey. They teach men through dreams. (3) _Service of the Gods_. Sacrifice and supplication are the chief forms of devotion. There is no dominant hierarchy. The temple has its priest, but the father is priest in his own household. (4) _Morals and Religion_. Morality is interwoven with religion. Above all, _oaths_ are sacred, and oath-breakers abhorred by gods as well as by men. In the conduct of the divinities, there are found abundant examples of unbridled anger and savage retaliation. Yet gentle sentiments, counsels to forbearance and mercy, are not wanting. The wrath of the gods is most provoked by lawless self-assertion and insolence. (5) _Propitiation: the Dead_. The sense of sin leads to the appeasing of the deities by offerings, attended with prayer. The offerings are gifts to the god, tokens of the honor due to him. The dead live as flitting shadows in Hades. _Achilles_ is made to say that he would rather be a miserable laborer on earth than to reign over all the dead in the abodes below. GREEK LITERATURE.--The chief types, both of poetry and of prose, originated with the Greeks. Their writings are the fountainhead of the literature of Europe. They prized simplicity: they always had an intense disrelish for obscurity and bombast. The earliest poetry of the Greeks consisted of _hymns_ to the gods. It was _lyrical_, an outpouring of personal feeling. The lyrical type was followed by the _epic_, where heroic deeds, or other events of thrilling interest, are the theme of song, and the personal emotion of the bard is out of sight through his absorption in the subject. Description flows on, the narrator himself being in the background. This epic poetry culminates in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ (900-700 B.C.). Their verse is the hexameter. These poems move on in a swift current, yet without abruptness or monotony. They are marked by a simplicity and a nobleness, a refinement and a pathos, which have charmed all subsequent ages. _Homer_, far more than any other author, was the educator of the Greeks. There was a class called _Homeridae_, in _Chios_; but whether they were themselves poets, or reciters of Homer, or what else may have been their peculiar work, is not ascertained. There was, however, a class of _Cyclic_ poets, who took up the legends of Troy, and carried out farther the Homeric tales. _Hesiod_ was the founder of a more didactic sort of poetry. He is about a century later than the Iliad. Besides the _Theogony_, which treats of the origin of the gods and of nature, his _Works and Days_ relates to the works which a farmer has to do, and the lucky or unlucky days for doing them. It contains doctrines and precepts relative to agriculture, navigation, civil and family life. Hesiod was the first of a Boeotian school of poets. He lacks the poetic genius of Homer, and the vivacity and cheerfulness which pervade the Iliad and the Odyssey. CHAPTER II. THE FORMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES. ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.--The early kings were obeyed as much for their personal qualities, such as valor and strength of body, as for their hereditary title. By degrees the noble families about the king took control, and the kingship thus gave way to the rule of an aristocracy. The priestly office, which required special knowledge, remained in particular families, as the _Eumolpidae_e at Athens,--families to whom was ascribed the gift of the seer, and to whom were known the _Eleusinian mysteries_. The nobles were landholders, with dependent farmers who paid rent. The nobles held sway over tillers of the soil, artisans and seamen, who constituted the people (the "demos"), and who had no share in political power. This state of things continued until the lower class gained more property and more knowledge; and the example of the colonial settlements, where there was greater equality, re-acted on the parent state. The struggle of the lower ranks for freedom was of long continuance. In all Greek cities, there were _Metoeci_, or resident foreigners without political rights, and also slaves from abroad. Free-born Greeks busied themselves with occupations connected with the fine arts, or with trade and commerce on an extended scale. They commonly eschewed all other employments, and especially menial labor. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LYCURGUS.--According to the legend, disorders in Sparta following the Dorian conquest, and strife between the victors and the conquered, moved _Lycurgus_, a man of regal descent, to retire to Crete, where the old Dorian customs were still observed. On his return he gave to the citizens a constitution, which was held in reverence by the generations after him. To him, also, laws and customs which were really of later date, came to be ascribed. The Spartan population consisted (1) of the _Spartiatæ_, who had full rights, and those of less means,--both comprising the Dorian conquerors. They were divided into three Phylæ, or tribes, each composed of ten divisions (Obæ); (2) the _Periæci_, Achaeans who paid tribute on the land which they held, were bound to military service, but had no political rights; (3) the _Helots_, serfs of the State, who were divided among the Spartiatæ by lot, and cultivated their lands, paying to them a certain fraction of the harvest. The form of government established by Lycurgus was an aristocratic republic. The Council of Elders, twenty-eight in number, chosen for life by the Phylæ, were presided over by two hereditary kings, who had little power in time of peace, but unlimited command of the forces in war. The popular assembly, composed of all Spartiatæ of thirty years of age or upwards, could only decide questions without debate. Five _Ephors_, chosen yearly by the Phylæ, acquired more and more authority. Lycurgus is said to have divided the land into nine thousand equal lots for the families of the Spartiatæ, and thirty thousand for the Periceci. To keep down the helots required constant vigilance, and often occasioned measures of extreme cruelty. The _Crypteia_ was an organized guard of young Spartans, whose business it was to prevent insurrection. LAWS AND CUSTOMS.--The Spartan state was thus aristocratic and military. It took into its own hands the education of the young. Weak and deformed children were left to perish in a ravine of Taygetus, or thrust down among the Periceci. Healthy children at the age of seven were taken from their homes, to be reared under the supervision of the State. They had some literary instruction, but their chief training was in gymnastics. They were exercised in hunting and in drills; took their meals together in the _syssitia_ (the public mess), where the fare was rough and scanty; slept in dormitories together; and by every means were disciplined for a soldier's life. The Spartan men likewise fed at public tables, and slept in barracks, only making occasional visits to their own houses. No money was in circulation except iron: no one was permitted to possess gold or silver. Girls were separately drilled in gymnastic exercises and made to be as hardy as boys. Marriage was regulated by the State. There was more purity, and women had a higher standing, in Sparta than in other parts of Greece. The strength of the Spartan army was in the _hoplites_, or heavy-armed infantry. In battle, messmates stood together. Cowardice was treated with the utmost contempt. The rigorous subordination of the young to their elders was maintained in war as in peace. The legend held, that after this constitution of Lycurgus had been approved by the Delphian oracle, he made the citizens swear to observe it until he should return from a projected journey. He then went to Crete, and stayed there until his death. HEGEMONY OF SPARTA.--Having thus organized the body politic, Sparta took the steps which gave it the _hegemony_ in Peloponnesus and over all Greece. First, it conquered the neighboring state of _Messenia_ in two great wars, the first ending about 725 B.C., and the second about 650 B.C. In the first of these wars, the Messenians submitted to become tributary to Sparta, after their citadel, _Ithome_, had been captured, and their defeated hero, _Aristodemus_, had slain himself. Many of the vanquished Messenians escaped from their country to Arcadia and Argolis. Some of them fled farther, and founded _Rhegium_ in Lower Italy. In the second war, the Messenians revolted against the tyrannical rule of Sparta, and at first, under _Aristomenes_, were successful, but were afterwards defeated by the Spartans, who were inspirited for the conflict by the war-songs of the Athenian poet, _Tyrtaeus_. _Aristomenes_ fled to Rhodes. Most of his people were made helots. The _Arcadians_, after long resistance, succumbed, and came under the Spartan hegemony (about 600 B.C.). _Argos_, too, was obliged to renounce its claim to this position in favor of its Spartan antagonist, after its defeat by _Cleomenes_, the Lacedaemonian king, at Thyrea (549 B.C.). The _Argive League_ was dissolved, and Sparta gained the right to command in every war that should be waged in common by the Peloponnesian states, the right, also, to determine the contingent of troops which each should furnish, and to preside in the council of the confederacy. She now began to spread her power beyond Peloponnesus, entered into negotiations with _Lydia_ (555 B.C.), and actually sent an expedition to the coast of Asia (525 B.C.). Moreover as early as 510 B.C., by interfering in the affairs of the states north of the Corinthian isthmus, and with _Attica_ in particular, she sowed among the Athenians the seeds of a lasting enmity. GOVERNMENT IN ATHENS: DRACO.--According to the legend, _Codrus_, who died about 1068 B.C., was the last of the Athenian kings. The _Eupatrids_, the noble families, abolished monarchy, and substituted for the king an _Archon_, chosen for life by them out of the family of Codrus. The Eupatrids stood in a sort of patriarchal relation to the common people. The inhabitants were divided into four tribes. These were subdivided, first into _Brotherhoods_ and _Clans_, and secondly, into classes based on consanguinity, and classes arranged for taxation, military service, etc. The entire community comprised the _Nobles_,--in whose hands the political power was lodged,--the _Farmers_, and the _Artisans_. The farmers and the artisans might gather in the _Agora_, and express assent to public measures, or dissent. In process of time the archons came to be chosen not from the family of Codrus exclusively, but from the _Eupatrids_ generally. From 682 B.C. they were nine in number, and they served but for one year. The administration of justice was in the hands of the nobles, who were not restrained by a body of written laws. The archon _Draco_, about 621 B.C., in order to check this evil, framed a code which seemed harsh, though milder than the laws previously enforced. Later it was said of his laws that they were written in blood. This legislation was a concession to which the nobles were driven by an uprising. Their hard treatment of debtors, many of whom were deprived of their liberty, had stirred up a serious conflict between the people and their masters. A rebellion, led by _Cylon_, one of the Eupatrids, was put down, and punished by means involving treachery and sacrilege. The insurgents were slain clinging to the altars of the gods, where they had taken refuge. Not long after it became necessary to introduce other reforms at the advice of _Solon_, one of "the seven wise men of Greece." He had acquired popularity by recovering _Salamis_ from the Megarians, and in a sacred war against towns which had robbed the temple of Apollo at Delphi. LEGISLATION OF SOLON--The design of Solon was to substitute a better system for the tyrannical oligarchy, but, at the same time, to keep power mainly in the hands of the upper class. He divided the people into four classes, according to the amount of their income. To the richest of these the archonship, and admission into the _Areopagus_, were confined. A new council was established, which had the right to initiate legislation, composed of one hundred from each of the four old tribes, and annually elected by the body of the citizens. The _Ecclesia_, or assembly of the whole people, having the right to choose the archons and councilors, was revived. _Courts of Appeal_, with jury trials, were instituted. The old council of the _Areopagus_ was clothed with high judicial and executive powers. There were laws to relieve a portion of the debtors from their burdens, and to abolish servitude for debt. Every father was required to teach his son a handicraft. PARTIES IN ATHENS.--The legislation of Solon was a measure of compromise. It satisfied neither party. After journeys abroad, he passed his old age in Athens, and was a spectator of the rising contests between the discordant factions, which his constitution was only able for a time to curb. There were three parties,--a re-actionary party under _Lycurgus_, a progressive party led by _Pisistratus_, and a moderate or middle party under _Megacles_. THE TYRANTS.--At this time, in almost all of the Grecian states, monarchy had given place to aristocracy. The reign of an _oligarchy_, the unbridled sway of a few, was commonly the next step. Against this the people in different states,--the _demos_,--rose in revolt. The popular leader, or "demagogue," was some conspicuous and wealthy noble, who thus acquired supreme authority. In this way, in the seventh and sixth centuries, most of the states were ruled by "tyrants,"--a term signifying absolute rulers, whether their administration was unjust and cruel, or fair and mild. They endeavored to fortify their rule by collecting poets, artists, and musicians about them, for their own pleasure and for the diversion of the populace. Occasionally they gave the people employment in the erection of costly buildings. They formed alliances with one another and with foreign kings. Not unfrequently they practiced violence and extortion. The _oligarchies_ sought to dethrone them. Their overthrow often had for its result the introduction of popular sovereignty. Among the most noted tyrants were Periander of Corinth (625-585 B.C.), _Pittacus_ in Lesbos (589-579 B.C.), and _Polycrates_ in Samos (535-522 B.C.). The PISISTRATIDS.--The government of Athens, framed by Solon, was in effect a "timocracy," or rule of the rich. At the head of the popular party stood _Pisistratus_, a rich nobleman of high descent. He succeeded, by means of his armed guard, in making himself master of the citadel. Twice driven out of the city, he at length returned (538 B.C.), and gained permanent control by force of arms. He managed his government with shrewdness and energy. Industry and trade flourished. He decorated Athens with buildings and statues. Religious festivals he caused to be celebrated with splendor. He ruled under the legal forms by having _archons_ chosen to suit him. He died 527 B.C. _Hippias_, his son, governed with mildness until his younger brother and colleague in power, _Hipparchus_, was slain by the two friends, _Harmodius_ and _Aristogiton_. Then he gave the rein to revengeful passion, and laid upon the people burdensome taxes. _Hippias_ was driven out of the city by the _Alcmaeonidae_ and other exiled nobles, assisted by the Spartan king, _Cleomenes_ (510 B.C.). He fled to Asia Minor in order to secure Persian help. THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY.--Clisthenes, a brilliant man, the head of the Alcmaeonid family, connected himself with the popular party, and introduced such changes in the constitution as to render him the founder of the Athenian Democracy. The power of the archons was reduced. All of the free inhabitants of Attica were admitted to citizenship. New tribes, ten in number, each comprising ten _denes_, or hamlets, with their adjacent districts, superseded the old tribes. A _council of five hundred_, fifty from each tribe, supplanted Solon's council of four hundred. The courts of law were newly organized. The _Ostracism_ was introduced; that is, the prerogative of the popular assembly to decree by secret ballot, without trial, the banishment of a person who should be deemed to be dangerous to the public weal. Certain officers were designated by lot. Ten _Strategi_, one from each tribe, by turns, took the place of the _archon polemarchus_ in command of the army. EFFECT OF DEMOCRACY.--Under this system of free government, the energy of the Athenian people was developed with amazing rapidity. The spirit of patriotism, of zeal for the honor and welfare of Athens, rose to a high pitch. The power and resources of the city increased in a proportionate degree. Culture kept pace with prosperity. LYRICAL POETRY.--In the eighth century, when monarchy was declining, and the tendency to democracy began to manifest itself, a new style of poetry, different from the epic, arose. The narrative poems of minstrels were heard at the great religious festivals. But there was a craving for the expression of individual feeling. Hence, lyrical poetry re-appeared, not in the shape of religious songs, as in the old time, but in a form to touch all the chords of sentiment. Two new types of verse appeared,--the _Elegiac_ and the _Iambic_. At first the elegy was probably a lament for the dead. It was accompanied by the soft music of the Lydian flute. The instruments which the Greeks had used were string-instruments. The early Greek elegies related to a variety of themes,--as war, love, preceptive wisdom. The iambic meter was first used in satire. Its earliest master of distinction was _Arckilochus_ of Paros (670 B.C.). It was employed, however, in fables, and elsewhere when pointed or intense expression was craved. The earliest of the Greek elegists, _Callinus_ and _Tyrtaus_, composed war-songs. _Mimnermus, Solon, Theognis, Simonides_ of _Ceos_, are among the most famous elegists. Music developed in connection with lyric poetry. The Greeks at first used the four-stringed lyre. Terpander made an epoch (660 B.C.) by adding three strings. _Olympus_ and _Thaletas_ made further improvements. Greek lyric poetry flourished, especially from 670 to 440 B.C. The Aeolian lyrists of _Lesbos_ founded a school of their own. The two great representatives are _Alcaus_, who sang of war and of love, and _Sappho_, who sang of love. "Probably no poet ever surpassed Sappho as an interpreter of passion in exquisitely subtle harmonies of form and sound." _Anacreon_, an Ionian, resembled in his style the Aeolian lyrists. He was most often referred to by the ancients as the poet of sensuous feeling of every sort. The _Dorian_ lyric poetry was mostly choral and historic in its topics. Greek lyric poetry reaches the climax in _Simonides_ and _Pindar_. The latter was a Boeotian, but of Dorian descent. _Simonides_ was tender and polished; _Pindar_, fervid and sublime The extant works of Pindar are the _Epinicia_, or odes of victory. HISTORICAL WRITING.--This age witnesses the beginnings of historical writing. But the _logographers_, as they were called, only wrote prose epics. They told the story of the foundation of families and cities, reconciling as best they could the myths, so far as they clashed with one another. PHILOSOPHY: THE IONIAN SCHOOL.--The Greeks were the first to investigate rationally the causes of things, and to try to comprehend the world as a complete system. The earliest phase of this movement was on the side of physics, or natural philosophy. _Homer_ and _Hesiod_ had accounted for the operations of nature by referring them to the direct personal action of different divinities. The earliest philosophers brought in the conception of some kind of matter as the foundation and source of all things. The _Ionian School_ led the way in this direction. _Thales_ of Miletus (about 600 B.C.) made this primary substance to be _water_. _Anaximander_ (611-? B.C.) made all things spring out of a primitive stuff, without definite qualities, and without bounds. He taught that the earth is round, invented the sun-dial, engraved a map on a brass tablet, and made some astronomical calculations. _Anaximenes_ (first half, 6th C.) derived all things from _air_, which he made to be eternal and infinite. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL.--The _Eleatic School_ conceived of the world as one in substance, and held that the natural phenomena which we behold, in all their variety and change, are unreal. _Xenophanes_ (who flourished from 572 to 478 B.C.) asserted this. _Parmenides_ (504-460 B.C.) taught that succession, change, the manifold forms of things, are only _relative_; that is, are only our way of regarding the one universal essence. _Zeno_ sought to vindicate this theory logically by disproving the possibility of motion. OTHER PHILOSOPHERS.--Another set of philosophers attempted definitely to explain the appearances of things, the changing phenomena, which had been called unreal. _Heraclitus_ made the world to be nothing but these: There is no substratum of things: there is only an endless flux, a cycle. All things begin and end in fire, the symbol of what is real. _Empedocles_ ascribed all things to fire, air, earth, and water, which are wrought into different bodies by "love" and "hate;" or, as we should say, attraction and repulsion. _Democritus_ was the founder of the _Atomists_, who made all things spring out of the motions and combinations of primitive atoms. _Anaxagoras_ brought in intelligence, or reason, as giving the start to the development of matter,--this principle doing nothing more, however, and being inherent in matter itself. PYTHAGORAS.--A different spirit in philosophy belonged to _Pythagoras_ (580-500 B.C.), who was born in Samos, traveled extensively, and settled in Croton, in southern Italy. His theory was, that the inner substance of all things is number. Discipline of character was a prime object. Pythagoras was sparing in his diet, promoted an earnest culture, in which music was prominent, and gave rise to a mystical school, in which moral reform and religious fueling were connected with an ascetic method of living. COLONIES.--It was during the era of the oligarchies and tyrannies that the colonizing spirit was most active among the Greeks. Most of the colonies were established between 800 and 550 B.C. Their names alone would make a very long catalogue. They were of two classes: first, _independent communities_, connected, however, with the parent city by close ties of friendship; and secondly, _kleruchies_, which were of the nature of garrisons, where the settlers retained their former rights as citizens, and the mother city its full authority over them. In _Sicily_, on the eastern side, were the Ionian communities,--Naxos, Catana, etc. _Syracuse_ (founded by Corinth 734 B.C.), _Gela_, and _Agrigentum_, which were among the chief Dorian settlements, lay on the south-eastern and south-western coasts. The oldest Greek town in _Italy_ was _Cumae_ (not far from Naples), said to have been founded in 1050 B.C. _Tarentum_ (Dorian), _Sybaris_, and _Croton_ (Aeolic) were settled in the latter part of the eighth century. _Locri_ (Aeolic) and _Rhegium_ (Ionic) were on the south. The south-western portion of Italy was termed _Magna Graecia_. _Massilia_ (Marseilles) was founded by the Phocaean Ionians (about 600 B.C.). In the western Mediterranean the Greeks were hindered from making their settlements as numerous as they would have done, by the fact that Carthage and her colonies stood in the way. _Cyrene_, on the coast of Africa, was a Dorian colony (630 B.C.), planted from _Thera_, an earlier Spartan settlement. _Cyrene_ founded _Barca_. _Corcyra_ was colonized by Corinth (about 700 B.C.). Along the coast of Epirus were other Corinthian and Corcyrasan settlements. Chalcis planted towns in the peninsula of Chalcidice, and from thence to _Selymbria_ (or Byzantium), which was founded by Megara (657 B.C.). The northern shores of the Ægean and the Propontis, and the whole coast of the Euxine were strewn with Greek settlements. The Greek towns, especially _Miletus_, on the western coast of Asia Minor, themselves sent out colonies,--as _Cyzicus_ and _Sinope_, south of the Propontis and the Euxine. The foregoing statements give only a general idea of the wide extent of Greek colonization. An exhaustive statement of the Greek colonies is given in Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_, p. 148 _seq_. See also Abbott, _A History of Greece_, I. 333 _seq_. PERIOD II. THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE. CHAPTER I. THE PERSIAN WARS. THE IONIAN REVOLT.--Hardly were the Greeks in possession of liberty when they were compelled to measure their strength with the mighty Persian Empire. The cities of Asia Minor groaned under the tyranny of their Persian rulers, and sighed for freedom. At length, under propitious circumstances, _Miletus_ rose in revolt under the lead of _Aristagoras_. Alone of the Grecian cities, Athens, and Eretria on the island of Euboea, sent help. The insurrection was extinguished in blood: its leaders perished. Miletus was destroyed by the enemy 495 B.C.; and the Ionian towns were again brought under the Persian yoke, which was made heavier than before. The Persian monarch, _Darius_, swore vengeance upon those who had aided the rebellion. THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.--_Mardonius_, the son-in-law of Darius, moved with a fleet and an army along the Ægean coast. A storm shattered the fleet upon the rocky promontory of Athos, and the land force was partly destroyed by the Thracians. Mardonius retreated homeward. The heralds who came to demand, according to the Persian custom, "water and earth" of Athens and Sparta, were put to death. Enraged at these events, Darius sent a stronger fleet under _Datis_ and _Artaphernes_. They forced _Naxos_ and the other _Cyclades_ to submission, captured and destroyed _Eretria_, and sent off its inhabitants as slaves to the interior of Asia. Guided on their path of destruction by the Athenian refugee, _Hippias_, the Persians landed on the coast of Attica, and encamped on the shore adjacent to the plain of _Marathon_. The Athenians sent _Philippides_, one of the swiftest of couriers, to Sparta for assistance, who reached that city, a hundred and thirty-five or a hundred and forty miles distant, the next day after he started. He brought back for answer that the Spartans were deterred by religious scruples from marching to war before the full moon, which would be ten days later. There was a Greek, as well as a Judaic, Pharisaism. Left to themselves, the Athenians were fortunate in having for their leader _Miltiades_, an able and experienced soldier, who had been with the Persians in the Scythian campaign. At the head of the Athenian infantry, ten thousand in number, whose hearts were cheered before the onset by the arrival of a re-inforcement of one thousand men, comprising the whole fighting population of the little town of _Platæa_, Miltiades attacked the Persian army, ten times as large as his own. The Athenians ran down the gentle slope at Marathon, shouting their war-cry, or pæan, and, after a fierce conflict, drove the Persians back to their ships, capturing their camp with all its treasures (Sept. 12, 490 B.C.). This brilliant victory was not the end of danger. The Greek watchmen saw a treacherous signal, a glistening shield, on _Mount Pentelicus_, put there to signify to the Persians that Athens was open to their attack. In that direction, round Cape Sunium, the Persian fleet sailed. But _Miltiades_, by a rapid march of twenty-three miles, reached the city in season to prevent the landing. _Datis_ and _Artaphernes_ sailed away. The traitor, _Hippias_, died on the return voyage. The patriotic exultation of the Athenians was well warranted. Never did they look back upon that victory without a thrill of joyful pride. It proved what a united free people were capable of achieving. More than that, MARATHON was one of the decisive battles which form turning-points in the world's history. It was a mortal conflict between the East and the West, between Asia and Europe,--the coarse despotism under which individual energy is stifled, and the dawning liberty which was to furnish the atmosphere required for the full development and culture of the human mind. ARISTIDES AND THEMISTOCLES.--_Miltiades_ subsequently failed in an attempt against _Paros_, one of the Ægean islands which had submitted to the Persians, and which he sought to conquer. Accused of making false promises to the people, he was fined fifty talents, but died before the sum could be collected (489 B.C.). His son _Cimon_ paid the fine. The two leading men in Athens at that time were _Aristides_ and _Themistocles_. The former, from his uprightness, was styled "the just." _Themistocles_ was a man of genius, of an ambitious spirit, whom the laurels of _Miltiades_ robbed of sleep. Devoted to Athens, he was not scrupulous in regard to the means of advancing her prosperity and glory. Duplicity and intrigue were weapons in the use of which he was not less willing than expert. He aspired to make Athens a great naval and maritime power. _Aristides_ believed that the strength of the country lay in the landholders and in the land forces. In the attainment of public ends, he would not deviate from a straightforward course. Themistocles was by far the more captivating of the two men; and, in 484 B.C., Aristides was ostracised. Themistocles was thus left free to build up a powerful fleet. THE WAR WITH XERXES: THERMOPYLÆ.--_Darius_ died while he was preparing another grand expedition against Greece. He left his successor, _Xerxes_ (485 B.C.), to complete and carry out the plan. This proud monarch drew together from his immense dominions an army which tradition, as given in Herodotus, made to number one million seven hundred thousand men and a fleet of twelve hundred large vessels. He had for a counselor, _Demaratus_, a fugitive king of Sparta. The vast array of troops was assembled near _Sardes_, and thence marched to the _Hellespont_. Seven days were spent by this mighty gathering of nations in passing over the two bridges of boats. They marched through Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, the Persian fleet proceeding along the coast. _Bæotia_ and several smaller states yielded without resistance. The most of the other Greek states, inspired by Themistocles, joined hands for defense under the hegemony of Sparta. In July, 480, the Persian army arrived at the narrow pass of _Thermopylæ_. There the Lacedæemonian king, _Leonidas_, with his three hundred Spartans and some thousands of allies, had taken his stand, to stem the vast current that was pouring down to overwhelm Greece. To the Persian command to give up their weapons, the "laconic" reply was given by Leonidas, "Come and get them." For several days the band of Spartans defended the pass, beating back the Persians, thousands of whom were slain, and repulsing, even, the ten thousand "immortals," who constituted the royal guard. At length a treacherous Greek showed the enemy a by-path, which enabled them to fall on the rear of the gallant troops, every one of whom fell, bravely fighting, with his weapon in his hand. A lion made of iron was afterwards placed on the spot where the heroes had died, "obedient to the commands of Sparta." The Persians pushed forward to _Athens_, and burned the city. All citizens capable of bearing arms were on board the fleet: the women, children, and movable property had been conveyed to _Salamis_, _Ægina_, and _Træzcne_. SALAMIS.--The Greek fleet, under the Spartan _Eurybiades_, had come from victory at Artemisium into the Gulf of Salamis. By means of a device of Themistocles, the Spartans were prevented from withdrawing their forces to the Corinthian isthmus, where they had built a wall for their own protection; and a sea-fight was brought on, of which the Athenians in Salamis, and Xerxes himself from a hill on the mainland, were anxious spectators (Sept. 27, 480). Once more the cause of civilization was staked on the issue of a conflict. The Greeks were completely victorious, and their land was saved. Xerxes hastily marched towards home, thousands of his army perishing on the way from hunger, cold, and fatigue. The _Spartiatæ_ gave to _Eurybiades_ the prize of valor, to _Themistocles_ an olive crown for his wisdom and sagacity. PLATÆA: MYCALE: EURYMEDON.--Xerxes left three hundred thousand men behind in Thessaly, under the command of _Mardonius_. In the spring, incensed at the proud rejection of his overtures, he marched to Athens, whose people again took refuge in Salamis. In the great battle of _Platæa_ (479 B.C.), the Greeks, led by the Spartan _Pausanias_, inflicted on him such a defeat that only forty thousand Persians escaped to the Hellespont. On the same day at _Mycale_, the Persian fleet was vanquished in a sharp encounter where a Spartan commanded, but where the Athenians were the most efficient combatants. Sestos, Lemnos, Imbros, and Byzantium were taken by the Greeks; and a double victory of _Cimon_, the son of Miltiades, at the Pamphylian river, _Eurymedon_, over both the land and naval forces of the Persians, brought the war to an end (467 B.C.). CHAPTER II. THE ASCENDENCY OF ATHENS. PAUSANIAS AND THEMISTOCLES.--Both of the generals by whom the Persians had been overcome, fell under the displeasure of the states to which they belonged. _Pausanias_ was so far misled by ambition as to engage in a negotiation with the Persians for the elevation of himself, by their aid, to supreme power in Greece. His plots were discovered, and he was compelled by his countrymen to starve to death in a temple to which he had fled for refuge. _Themistocles_ caused Athens to be surrounded by a wall, and built long walls from the city to the _Piræus_. This provoked the hatred of the Spartans, so jealous were they of the power of Athens. In conjunction with his Athenian enemies, they contrived to procure his banishment for ten years (471 B.C.). Themistocles fled to Persia, where he was treated with honor and favor. _Artaxerxes I._ gave him a princely domain in Asia Minor where he died (458 B.C.). Grave as his faults were, Themistocles was the founder of the historical greatness of Athens. CONFEDERACY OF DELOS.--It was through the influence of _Aristides_ that the confederacy of Delos was formed, in which the Grecian islands and seaports combined with Athens, and under her leadership, for the further prosecution of the war. By this means, the Athenians, already so efficient on the sea, were enabled still more to strengthen their fleet, and gradually to bring the Ægean islands and smaller maritime states under their sway. _Cimon_ rendered great service as a naval commander. He drove the Persians out of Thrace altogether, and he conquered _Scyros_. He wrested the Chersonese from the Persians, and freed the Greek cities on the coast. In the single battle on the _Eurymedon_, he sunk or captured two hundred galleys (467 B.C.). TO THE PEACE OF PERICLES.--Under the leadership of such men, the Athenian Republic became more and more powerful. _Ægina_, a rich and prosperous island, was conquered, and planted with Athenian colonists. _Megara_ became a dependency of Athens. Sparta, partly in consequence of a struggle with Argos, a state friendly to the Persians, and still more on account of an earthquake which laid the most of the city in ruins (465 B.C.), was so crippled as not to be able to check the progress of the rival community. She was even obliged to invoke Athenian help against the revolting Messenians and helots; but after the troops of Athens had joined them, the Spartans, jealous and afraid of what they might do, sent them back. This indignity led to the banishment of _Cimon_, who had favored the sending of the force, and to the granting of aid to the Spartans. The Spartans now did their best to reduce the strength and dominion of Athens by raising _Thebes_ to the hegemony over the Boeotian cities. Everywhere, in all the conflicts, Sparta was the champion of the _aristocratic_ form of government; Athens, of the _democratic_. The Athenians were defeated at _Tanagra_ (457 B.C.). This induced them to recall _Cimon_, a great general and a worthy citizen. Two months after her victory, Sparta was defeated by _Myronides_; and the Athenians became masters of Phocis, Locris, and Boeotia. Cimon brought about a truce between Athens and Sparta. He left his country on a high pinnacle of power and dominion. Nearly all the allies in the confederacy of Delos had fallen into the position of tributaries, whose heavy contributions were carried no longer to the sanctuary at Delos, but to the temple of Athena on the Acropolis, and who had no power to decide on questions of peace and war. The nobles, however, who were driven into exile in all conquered places, were the mortal enemies of Athens. At _Coronea_ (447 B.C.), the Boeotian refugees and aristocrats were so strong that the Athenians experienced a disastrous defeat. The peril of the situation moved _Pericles_ to secure, by astute management, a peace with Sparta, the terms of which were that each of the two cities was to maintain its hegemony within its own circle, and the several states were to attach themselves at their option to either confederacy. In market and harbor, there was to be a free intercourse of trade (445 B.C.). THE AGE OF PERICLES.--Pericles belonged to one of the principal Athenian families, but was democratic in his politics, and made himself a popular leader. By his influence the _Areopagus_ was stripped of high prerogatives that had belonged to it. He caused it to be enacted, that every citizen, when engaged in the public service, even in attending the popular assembly, should receive a stipend. For fifteen years, as the first citizen of Athens, with none of the trappings of power, he virtually ruled the commonwealth. One of his works was the building the third of the _long walls_ which protected the _Piræus_ and the neighboring ports on the land side, and connected them with Athens. His patriotism was as sincere as his talents were versatile and brilliant. He was at once a soldier, an orator, a statesman of consummate ability, and a man imbued with the best appreciation of letters and of art. In his hospitable house, where _Aspasia_ from Miletus, a beautiful and cultured woman, was his companion, men of genius found a welcome. Under him, Athens became the metropolis of literature, philosophy, and art for the whole Hellenic race, and, considering the influence of Athens, it might almost be said for mankind in all ages. Magnificent buildings--of which the _Parthenon_, the temple of Athena that crowned the Acropolis, whose ruins are the model of architectural perfection, was one--gave to the city an unrivaled beauty. _Sculpture_ vied with architecture in this work of adornment. _Phidias_, who wrought the frieze of the Parthenon, counted among his wonderful creations the colossal sitting statue of Zeus at Olympia. It was the blossoming season of the Greek intellect, as regards _literature_ and the _fine arts_. The _drama_ reached its perfection in the masterly tragedies of _Aeschylus, Sophocles,_ and _Euripides_, and in the comedies of _Aristophanes_. The Athenian community, through its political eminence, its intellectual character, so original and diversified, its culture,--such that almost every citizen was qualified for civil office,--has no parallel in history. It is the elevation, not of a select class of the citizens, but of the whole society, which gives to Athens its unique distinction. Public spirit and enterprise, which made her navy dominant in the Aegean and over the sea-coast of Asia Minor, went hand in hand with delight in eloquence and in the creations of genius. There was not, however, as some have affirmed, in the prevalent absorption in the affairs of state, a neglect of the labors of agriculture and of mechanical industry. THE ACROPOLIS--It was customary for a Greek town to be built about an acropolis,--an eminence by which it was commanded, and on which stood the citadel. On the acropolis at Athens were the buildings and statues in which the glory of Athenian art was impressively displayed. There were three edifices which excelled all the rest in splendor. On the south side of the elevated area was the _Parthenon_, built of Pentelic marble, two hundred and twenty-eight feet in length, and of faultless proportions. On the northern edge was the _Erechtheum_, an Ionic temple of extraordinary beauty. The _Propylcea_, approached by sixty marble steps, was a noble gateway: it stood on the western end of the acropolis, which it magnificently adorned. ATHENS--No other description of Athens, in the age of Pericles, equals his own in the _Funeral Oration_ (431 B.C.), as given by Thucydides, for those who had fallen in the war. It shows how an Athenian looked upon his city. "It is true that we are called a democracy; for the administration is in the hands of the many, and not of the few. But while the law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar; but a man may benefit his country, whatever be the obscurity of his condition. There is no exclusiveness in our public life; and in our private intercourse we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes: we do not put on sour looks at him, which, though harmless, are not pleasant. While we are thus unconstrained in our private intercourse, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts: we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for authority and the laws, having an especial regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the injured, as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the transgressor of them the reprobation of the general sentiment. "And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many relaxations from toil. We have regular games and sacrifices throughout the year. At home the style of our life is refined, and the delight which we daily feel in all these things helps to banish melancholy. Because of the greatness of our city, the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as of our own. "Then, again, our military training is in many respects superior to that of our adversaries. Our city is thrown open to the world; and we never expel a foreigner, or prevent him from seeing or learning any thing of which the secret, if revealed to an enemy, might profit him. We rely not upon management or trickery, but upon our own hearts and hands. And in the matter of education, whereas they from early youth are always undergoing laborious exercises which are to make them brave, we live at ease, and yet are equally ready to face the perils which they face. And here is the proof,--the Lacedaemonians come into Attica, not by themselves, but with their whole confederacy following; we go alone into a neighbor's country; and, although our opponents are fighting for their homes, and we are on a foreign soil, we have seldom any difficulty in overcoming them. Our enemies have never yet felt our united strength. The care of a navy divides our attention, and on land we are obliged to send our own citizens everywhere. But they, if they meet and defeat a part of our army, are as proud as if they had routed us all; and, when defeated, they pretend to have been vanquished by us all. "If, then, we prefer to meet danger with a light heart, but without laborious training, and with a courage which is gained by habit, and not enforced by law, are we not greatly the gainers? since we do not anticipate the pain, although, when the hour comes, we can be as brave as those who never allow themselves to rest. And thus, too, our city is equally admirable in peace and war; for we are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and ostentation, but when there is real use for it. To avow poverty with us is no disgrace: the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect the State because he takes care of his own household, and even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics. We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as harmless, but as a useless character; and, if few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of policy. The great impediment to action is, in our opinion, not discussion, but the want of that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action. For we have a peculiar power of thinking before we act, and of acting too; whereas other men are courageous from ignorance, but hesitate upon reflection. And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense both of the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger. In doing good, again, we are unlike others: we make our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favors. Now, he who confers a favor is the firmer friend, because he would fain by kindness keep alive the memory of an obligation; but the recipient is colder in his feelings, because he knows that in requiting another's generosity he will not be winning gratitude, but only paying a debt. We alone do good to our neighbors, not upon a calculation of interest, but in the confidence of freedom, and in a frank and fearless spirit. To sum up, I say that Athens is the school of Hellas, and that the individual Athenian in his own person seems to have the power of adapting himself to the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility and grace. This is no passing and idle word, but truth and fact; and the assertion is verified by the position to which these qualities have raised the State. For in the hour of trial Athens alone among her contemporaries is superior to the report of her. No enemy who comes against her is indignant at the reverses which he sustains at the hands of such a city: no subject complains that his masters are unworthy of him. And we shall assuredly not be without witnesses; there are mighty monuments of our power, which will make us the wonder of this and of succeeding ages. We shall not need the praises of Homer or of any other panegyrist, whose poetry may please for the moment, although his representation of the facts will not bear the light of day; for we have compelled every land and every sea to open a path for our valor, and have everywhere planted eternal memorials of our friendship and of our enmity. Such is the city for whose sake these men nobly fought and died: they could not bear the thought that she might be taken from them, and every one of us who survive should gladly toil on her behalf." RELIGION.--We find in _Sophocles_ a much purer tone of moral and religious feeling than in _Homer_. Greek thought upon divine things is expanded and purified, (i) _Higher Conception of the Gods_. The gods are still conceived of as in bodily form. Their images abide in their temples. Take them away, and the god leaves his abode. The divinities need not be present, as in Homer, in order to exert their power. The monotheistic tendency is manifest. The "gods" are referred to as if a single agency were in the writer's mind. The regal sway of Zeus is emphasized. He is less subject to Fate. (2) _Divine Government_. The gods, especially _Zeus_, are the fountain of law. The righteousness of the divine government is especially evinced in the punishment of evil-doers. Transgressors generally, and not those of the worst class alone, as in Homer, are punished in _Hades_. Pride and insolence call down the vengeance of the gods. Unsleeping justice pursues the criminal. The theory of _Nemesis_, which pursues the prosperous, if they are proud, to their hurt and ruin, is held. (3) _Number of the Gods_. The number of divinities is multiplied as time advances. The worship of the heroes, children of the gods or goddesses, grows in importance. (4) _Revelation_. There was direct revelation, it was believed, by prophecy, uttered now in an ecstatic, and now in a tranquil, mood. _Oracles_ acquired a new and vast importance. (5) _Rites_. Visible objects of devotion were multiplied; religious ceremonies ramified in all directions; sacred processions, festivals, amusements involving religious observances, abounded. (6) _Morality_. Moral excellence centered in moderation and self-government, through which the individual keeps both his own nature as to its parts, and himself in relation to others, within due limits. This spirit includes temperance and justice. The stern spirit of law prevails: the requital of injuries is approved. Yet feelings of compassion find a beautiful expression. At Athens, there was public provision for orphans and for the help of the poor. (7) _Domestic Life: Patriotism_. The wife lived in retirement, and in submission to her husband. When he entertained friends at his table, she was absent; yet domestic affection was evidently strong. Every other duty merged in patriotism. The Greek placed a great gulf between himself and the "barbarian." He was conscious of higher intellectual gifts, superior culture, better customs. (8) _Sin. The Future Life_. There was a deeper sense of sin than in the Homeric era. There was a pathetic consciousness of the trouble and sorrow that beset human life. _Hades_ was regarded as a scene of trial and judgment, and of rewards as well as sufferings. The soul was not so closely identified with the body. Death was an object of gloomy anticipation. _Pericles_, in his funeral oration for the fallen patriots, is silent as to a future life. In the tragic poets, it is only the select few whose lot is blessed. As concerns the mass of the people, it is probable that the Homeric notions respecting the state of the dead still prevailed. Generally speaking, we are not warranted in ascribing the more elevated views of religion entertained by the best minds to the mass of the people. THE TRAGIC DRAMA.--The songs which were sung in the worship of Dionysus (dithyrambs) were accompanied with dance and pantomime. The custom followed of mingling speeches and dramatic action with these lyrics. The change is ascribed to _Thespis_ (about 536 B.C.), a little later than Solon. Thespis is said to have brought in the stage for the performers. The Greek theaters were large, open to the sky, and sometimes on sites which commanded fine views. There was the amphitheater, with graded seats for spectators, and the stage, together with the orchestra where the choir in song or musical recitation reflected the sympathies and views of the spectators of the play. At first there was only one actor, and, of course, a monologue. _Aeschylus_ is said to have brought in a second actor, and _Sophocles_ a third. These, with _Euripides_, were the three great dramatists of Greece. The choral song, which had been the chief thing, was made secondary to the dialogue. Aeschylus, at the age of forty-five, fought in the battle of Salamis; Sophocles, then fifteen years old, took part in the festival in honor of the victory; and Euripides was born, it was supposed, on the very day of the battle. These three brought the tragic drama to perfection. Of the productions of Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.), seven remain. They are inspired with the heroic and elevated mood which was engendered by the great struggle against the Persians. Of the numerous plays of Sophocles (495-406 B.C.), the number of those extant is also seven. They so combine vigor and force with refinement of thought and style that they are surpassed, if indeed they are equaled, by the literary products of no age or country. In Euripides (480-406 B.C.), while there is an insight into the workings of the heart, and the antique nobleness of sentiment, there is less simplicity, and there is manifest the less earnest and believing tone of the later day. In the dramas, the "unities" of time, place, and action are observed. The acts together seldom stretch over a single day. COMEDY--Comedy, in which _Aristophanes_ (452-388 B.C.), a great poet as well as a great wit, was the principal author, dealt largely in satire. Conspicuous men, and those active in public affairs, were represented on the stage in satirical pieces, so that they were at once identified. The spirit of the "old comedy" was patriotic, although it might be unjust, as in the case of Socrates, who was a target for the wit of Aristophanes. The "middle comedy" was nothing really distinct from the "new comedy." The "new comedy," in which Menander (342-290 B.C.) was an eminent author, ceased to present actual persons, and dealt with imaginary characters alone. Among the Greeks in Lower Italy and Sicily, mimes were much in vogue. GREEK ART: ARCHITECTURE--The Greeks more and more broke away in a free and joyous spirit from the stiff and conventional styles of Egyptian and Oriental art. In the room of the somber, massive edifices of Egypt, they combined symmetry and beauty with grandeur in the temples which they erected. The temples were originally colored within and without. Three styles were developed,--the _Doric_, the _Ionic_, and the _Corinthian_. In the _Doric_, the column and entablature have the most solid and simple form. The column has no other base than the common platform on which the pillars rest, and the capital that surmounts it is a plain slab. In the _Ionic_ style, the column has a distinct base, is more tall and slender, and its capital has two _volutes_, or spiral moldings. The capital of the _Corinthian_ column is peculiar, representing flower calices and leaves, "pointing upwards, and curving like natural plants." The _acanthus_, on account of its graceful form, was generally copied. The most ancient Doric temples, of a date prior to the Persian war, of which the ruined temple of Neptune at Paestum is one, are, in comparison with later edifices, of a severe and massive style. In the period extending from the Persian war to the Macedonian rule, the stern simplicity of the Doric is modified by the softer and more graceful character of the Ionic. The temple of _Theseus_ at Athens is an example. The _Parthenon_ was the most beautiful specimen of the Doric, which has appropriated the grace of the Ionic column without losing its own distinctive character. In the later period, after freedom was lost, there was much more ornamentation. It was then that the more decorated Corinthian style flourished. SCULPTURE.--Before the Persian wars, in the earliest sculpture the restraint of Egyptian and Oriental styles is perceptible in the sculptors, of whom Daedalus is the mythical representative. The oldest statues were of wood, which was subsequently covered with gold and ivory, or painted. The lofty style of _Phidias_ (488-432 B.C.), and of _Polycletus_ of Argos, became prevalent in the flourishing period of Greek liberty. _Myron_, to whom we owe the _Discobolus_ (Disk-Thrower), belongs to the school of Aegina. Statues were now made in brass and marble. They were everywhere to be seen. The pediments and friezes of the temples were covered with exquisitely wrought sculptures. The most beautiful sculptures that have come down from antiquity are the marbles of the Parthenon. The Greeks appreciated to the full the beauty of nature. They gave to their gods ideal human forms, in which were blended every attribute of majesty and grace which are conceived to belong to perfected humanity. Sculpture in Greece, as elsewhere, was ally to religion; "but whilst the religion of the Egyptians was a religion of the tomb, and their ideal world a gloomy spot peopled by sleeping lions, dreamy sphinxes, or weird unearthly monsters, the mythology of the Greeks, rightly understood, is an exquisite poem, the joint creation of the master-minds of infant Greece; and their art is a translation of that poem into visible forms of beauty." In the _third period_, which may be made to terminate with the death of _Alexander the Great_ (323 B.C.), there were masters in sculpture, among whom _Praxiteles_ and _Scopas_ are at the head. More and more, as we come down to the Roman period, while extraordinary technical perfection is still manifested, the loftier qualities of art tend to disappear. PAINTING.--In Greece, painting first ceased to be subordinate to architecture, and became independent. In early days, there was skill in the ornamentation of vases and in mural painting. Yet, with much spirit and feeling, there was a conventional treatment. The earliest artist of whom we know much is _Polygnotus_ (about 420 B.C.), whose groups of profile figures were described as remarkable for their life-like character and fine coloring. _Apollodorus_ of Athens was distinguished, but _Zeuxis_ of Heraclea is said to have been the first to paint movable pictures. He is famed for his marvelous power of imitation: the birds pecked at a bunch of grapes which he painted. But even he was outdone by _Parrhasius_. Zeuxis, however, had far higher qualities than those of a literal copyist. The most successful of the Greek painters was _Apelles_. Among his masterpieces was a painting of Venus rising from the waves, and a portrait of Alexander the Great. We have not in painting, as in sculpture, a store of monuments of Greek art; but the skill of the Greeks in painting fell behind their unequaled genius in molding the human form in bronze and marble. CHAPTER III. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. I. TO THE PEACE OF NICIAS (421 B.C.). TO THE DEATH OF PERICLES.--Wonderful as was the growth of Athens under Pericles, it is obvious that she stood exposed to two principal sources of danger. Her allies and dependants, the stay of that naval power in which her strength lay, were discontented with her spirit of domination and of extortion. The _Peloponnesian Alliance_, which was led by _Sparta_, the bulwark of the aristocratic interest, comprised, with the Dorian, most of the Aeolian states,--as Boeotia, Phocis, Locris, etc. Its military strength lay mainly in its heavy-armed infantry. Thus Sparta had the advantage of strong allies. The motive at the bottom of this alliance was what Thucydides tells was the real cause of the Peloponnesian war,--the jealousy which the growth of Athens excited in other states. This feeling really involved a conviction of the need of maintaining in Greece that which in modern times is called a "balance of power." When Greece was no longer one, as in the best days of the wars with Persia, but was divided into two opposite camps, watchful and jealous of one another, an occasion of conflict could not fail to arise. It was complained that Athens gave help to _Corcyra_ in a war with _Corinth_, its mother city, made war upon _Potidaea_ in Macedonia, a Corinthian colony, and also shut out _Megara_ from the harbors of Attica. The demands made by Sparta, which included the granting of independence to _Aegina_, were rejected. Attica was ravaged by Spartan troops, and the coast of Peloponnesus by the Athenian fleet (431 B.C.). This desolating warfare was kept up until a frightful pestilence broke out at Athens,--a plague having its origin in Egypt, and passing thence over Asia and the Greek islands. Two of the sons of Pericles died, and an accumulation of public burdens and private sorrows brought on his own death (Sept., 429). THE PESTILENCE.--The horrors of the pestilence are thus described in a celebrated passage of the best of the Greek historians, _Thucydides:_ "The crowding of the people out of the country into the city aggravated the misery, and the newly arrived suffered most. For, haying no houses of their own, but inhabiting, in the height of summer, stifling huts, the mortality among them was dreadful, and they perished in wild disorder. The dead lay as they had died, one upon another; while others, hardly alive, wallowed in the streets, and crawled about every fountain, craving for water. The temples in which they lodged were full of the corpses of those who died in them; for the violence of the calamity was such that men, not knowing where to turn, grew reckless of all law, human and divine. The customs which had hitherto been observed at funerals were universally violated, and they buried their dead, each one as best he could. Many, having no proper appliances, because the deaths in their household had been so frequent, made no scruple of using the burial-place of others. When one man had raised a funeral-pile, others would come, and, throwing on their dead first, set fire to it; or, when some other corpse was already burning, before they could be stopped, would throw their own dead upon it, and depart. "There were other and worse forms of lawlessness which the plague introduced at Athens. Men who had hitherto concealed their indulgence in pleasure, now grew bolder. For, seeing the sudden change,--how the rich died in a moment, and those who had nothing, immediately inherited their property,--they reflected that life and riches were alike transitory, and they resolved to enjoy themselves while they could, and to think only of pleasure. Who would be willing to sacrifice himself to the law of honor when he knew not whether he would ever live to be held in honor? The pleasure of the moment, and any sort of thing which conduced to it, took the place both of honor and of expediency: no fear of God or law of man deterred a criminal. Those who saw all perishing alike, thought that the worship or neglect of the gods made no difference. For offenses against human law, no punishment was to be feared: no one would live long enough to be called to account. Already a far heavier sentence had been passed, and was hanging over a man's head: before that fell, why should he not take a little pleasure?" TO THE TRUCE WITH SPARTA.--The loss of Pericles, coupled with the terrible calamities which had befallen Athens, let loose the winds of party passion. New leaders of the democracy, of whom _Cleon_ was the most noted, who lacked the refinement and self-restraint of Pericles, took his place. The Athenians were not able to save _Plataea_, to which they owed so much, from destruction at the hands of the _Spartans_ and _Boeotians_ (427 B.C.); but _Lesbos_ they recovered, and captured _Mytilene_, the bulk of whose citizens, against the will of Cleon, they spared. To the cruelties of war, which the revengeful temper of the Spartans promoted, there was added another plague at Athens, besides an earthquake, and tremendous rain-storms, alternating with drought. _Demosthenes_, a brave and enterprising Athenian general, took possession of Pylos in Messenia. The Spartans, under _Brasidas_, were on the island of _Sphacteria_ opposite; and their retreat was cut off by the fleet under _Nicias_, who was the leader of the more aristocratic faction at Athens. _Cleon_, made strategus in the room of Nicias, took Sphacteria by storm, contrary to general expectation, and brought home nearly three hundred Spartan prisoners. Athens had other successes; but when her forces had been defeated by the Boeotians at _Delium_, and Brasidas had captured _Amphipolis_, and when in a battle there (422 B.C.) Brasidas was victorious over _Cleon_, who fell during the flight, the aristocratic party, which was desirous of peace, gained the upper hand. _Nicias_ concluded a truce with Sparta for fifty years. Each party was to restore its conquests and prisoners. II. THE INFLUENCE OF ALCIBIADES. THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION.--From this time, _Alcibiades_, a relative of Pericles, but lacking his sobriety and disinterested spirit, plays an active part. Beautiful in person, rich, a graceful and effective orator, but restless and ambitious, he quickly acquired great influence. Three years after the peace of Nicias, he persuaded Athens to join a league of disaffected Peloponnesian allies of Sparta; but in the battle of _Mantinea_ (418 B.C.) the Spartans regained their supremacy. It was at the suggestion of Alcibiades that the Athenians undertook the great _Sicilian Expedition_, which resulted in the worst disasters they ever suffered. This expedition was aimed at the Dorian city of _Syracuse_, and the hope was that all Sicily might be conquered. It consisted of about forty thousand men, besides the sailors. The commanders were _Alcibiades_, _Nicias_, and _Lamachus_. Alcibiades was recalled to answer a charge of sacrilege. At Thurii he managed to escape and went over to the side of Sparta. _Gylippus_ went with a small Spartan fleet to aid Syracuse. The Athenians were repulsed in their attack on the city. Although re-inforced by land and naval forces under a gallant and worthy general, _Demosthenes_, they fought under great disadvantages, so that their fleet was destroyed in the Syracusan harbor. Their retreating forces on land were cut to pieces or captured. _Nicias_ and _Demosthenes_ died either at the hands of the executioner or by a self-inflicted death. NAVAL CONTESTS.--No such calamity had ever overtaken a Grecian army. The news of it brought anguish into almost every family in Athens. The Spartans had fortified the village of _Decelea_ in Attica, and sought on the sea, with Persian help, to annihilate the Athenian navy. The allies of Athens, _Chios_, _Miletus_, etc., revolted. The oligarchs at Athens overthrew the democratic constitution, and placed the Government in the hands of a _Council of Four Hundred_. The popular assembly was limited to five thousand members, and was never called together. The object was to make peace with Sparta. But the army before Samos, of which _Thrasybulus_, a patriotic man, was the leader, refused to accept this change of government. _Alcibiades_, who had left the Spartans out of anger on account of their treatment of him, was recalled, and assumed command. The oligarchical rule was overturned in four months after its establishment, and the democracy restored,--the assembly being still limited, however, to five thousand citizens. Three brilliant naval victories, the last at _Cyzicus_ (410 B.C.), were won over the Spartans by Alcibiades who came back to Athens in triumph (408 B.C.). _Lysander_ was the commander of the Spartan fleet on the coast of Asia Minor, and (407 B.C.) gained a victory over the Athenian ships during a temporary absence of Alcibiades. Alcibiades was not reëlected general. He now withdrew, and, three years later, died. The new Spartan admiral, _Callicratidas_, surrounded the Athenian fleet under _Conon_ at Mitylene. By very strenuous exertions of the Athenians, a new fleet was dispatched to the help of Conon; and in the battle of _Arginusæ_ (406 B.C.), the Peloponnesians were completely vanquished. The public spirit of Athens and the resources of a free people were never more impressively shown than in the prodigious efforts made by the Athenians to rise from the effect of the crushing disaster which befell the Sicilian expedition on which their hopes were centered. But these exertions only availed to furnish to coming generations an example of the heroic energy and love of country which are possible under free government. III. THE FALL OF ATHENS. _Lysander_ once more took command of the Spartan fleet. Shrewd in diplomacy, as well as skillful in battle, he strengthened his naval force by the aid of _Cyrus_ the Younger, the Persian governor in Asia Minor. Watching his opportunity, he attacked the Athenians at _Ægospotami_, opposite Lampsacus, when soldiers and sailors were off their guard (405 B.C.). Three thousand of them, who had not been slain in the assault, were slaughtered after they had been taken captive. _Conon_ escaped to Cyprus with only eight ships. One fast-sailing trireme carried the news of the overwhelming defeat to Athens. Lysander followed up his success cautiously, but with energy. Islands and seaports surrendered to him, and in them he established the aristocratic rule. The Athenians were shut in by land and by sea. A treacherous aristocratic faction within the walls was working in the interest of the Spartans. Famine conspired with other agencies to destroy the multitude of homeless and destitute people who had crowded into the city. Starvation compelled a surrender to the Spartan general. The long walls and fortifications were demolished by the ruthless conqueror, the work of destruction being carried on to the sound of the flute. All but twelve vessels were given up to the captors. The democratic system was subverted, and thirty men--the "_Thirty Tyrants_"--of the oligarchical party were established in power, with _Critias_, a depraved and passionate, though able, man, at their head (404-403 B.C.). They put a Spartan garrison in the citadel, and sought to confirm their authority by murdering or banishing all whom they suspected of opposition. _Thrasybulus_, a patriot, collected the democratic fugitives at _Phyle_, defeated the Thirty, and seized the _Piraeus_. Critias was slain. _Ten oligarchs_ of a more moderate temper were installed in power. In co-operation with the Spartan king, _Pausanias_, the two parties at Athens were reconciled. An amnesty was proclaimed, and democracy in a moderate form was restored, with a revision of the laws, under the archonship of _Euclides_ (403 B.C.). It was shortly after this change that the trial and death of _Socrates_ occurred, the wisest and most virtuous man of ancient times (399 B.C.). PHILOSOPHY: SOCRATES.--At the head of the Greek philosophers is the illustrious name of _Socrates_. He was the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and was born 469 B.C., just as Pericles was assuming the leadership at Athens. Socrates was the founder of moral philosophy. He was original, being indebted for his ideas to no previous school. He was as sound in body as in mind. His appearance was unique. His forehead was massive, but his flat nose gave to his countenance an aspect quite at variance with the Greek ideal of beauty. He looked, it was said, like a satyr. He taught, in opposition to the _Sophists_, a class of men (including _Gorgias, Protagoras_, and others) who instructed young men in logic and grammar, taking fees,--which was contrary to the custom of the Greek philosophers,--and cultivating intellectual keenness and dexterity, often at the expense of depth and sincerity. Their work as thinkers was negative, being confined mainly to pointing out fallacies in existing systems, but providing nothing positive in the room of them. _Socrates_ had been called by the oracle at Delphi the wisest of men. He could only account for this by the fact, that, in contrast with others, he did not erroneously deem himself to be knowing. "Know thyself" was his maxim. His daily occupation was to converse with different classes, especially young men, on subjects of highest moment to the individual and to the state. By a method of quiet cross-examination, the "_Socratic irony_," he made them aware of their lack of clear ideas and tenable, consistent opinions, and endeavored to guide them aright. The _soul_ and its moral improvement was his principal subject. He asserted _Theism_ and the spiritual nature and obligations of religion, without calling in question the existence of the various divinities. He taught the doctrine of a universal _Providence_. Absolute loyalty to conscience, the preference of virtue to any possible advantage without it, he solemnly inculcated. He believed, perhaps not without a mingling of doubt, in the immortality of the soul. Taking no part in public affairs, he devoted his time to this kind of familiar instruction,--to teaching by dialogue, in compliance with what he believed to be an inward call of God. An impulse within him, which he called a divine "voice," checked him when he was about to take a wrong step. He was charged with corrupting the youth by his teaching, and with heresy in religion. His rebukes of the shallow and the self-seeking had stung them, and had made him many enemies. Such men as _Alcibiades_ and _Critias_, who had been among his hearers, but for whose misconduct he was really not in the least responsible, added to his unpopularity. The _Apology_, as given by Plato, contains the substance of his most impressive defense before his judges. He took no pains to placate them or his accusers, or to escape after he was convicted. Conversing with his disciples in the same genial, tranquil tone which he had always maintained, he drank the cup of hemlock, and expired (May, 399 B.C.). An account of his teaching and of his method of life is given by his loving scholar, _Xenophon_, in the _Memorabilia_. The dialogues of _Plato_, in which Socrates is the principal interlocutor, mingle with the master's doctrine the pupil's own thoughts and speculations. PLATO.--_Plato_ (427-347 B.C.), the foremost of the disciples of Socrates, founded the philosophical school known as the _Academy_ from the place where his pupils were wont to meet him. One of his prominent tenets was the doctrine of _ideas_ which he regarded as spiritual realities, intermediate between God and the world, of which all visible things are the manifestation. They are the shadow, so to speak, of which ideas are the substance. He defined virtue in man to be resemblance to God according to the measure of our ability. In the _Republic_, he sets forth his political views, and sketches the ideal state. More speculative than Socrates, Plato, from the wide range of his discussions, from their poetic spirit as well as their depth of thought, not less than their beauty of style, is one of the most inspiring and instructive of all authors. No other heathen writer presents so many points of affinity with Christian teaching. ARISTOTLE.--Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) studied under Plato, but elaborated a system of his own, which was on some points dissonant from that of his instructor. His investigations extended over the field of material nature, as well as over the field of mind and morals. With less of poetry and of lofty sentiment than Plato, he has never been excelled in intellectual clearness and grasp. He was possessed of a wonderful power to observe facts, and an equally wonderful talent for systemizing them, and reasoning upon them. He is the founder of the science of _Logic_. His treatises on _Rhetoric_ and on _Ethics_ have been hardly less important in their influence. His _Politics_ is a masterly discussion of political science, based on a diligent examination of the various systems of government. In truth, in all departments of research he exhibits the same capacity for scientific observation and discussion. In religion he was a theist; but he is less spiritual in his vein of thought, and more reserved in his utterances on this theme, than Plato. The names of these two philosophers have been very frequently coupled. Their influence, like their fame, is imperishable. LATER SCHOOLS: THE CYNICS.--The impulse given by Socrates gave rise to still other schools of philosophers. _Aristippus_ of Cyrene (about 380 B.C.) founded a sect which held that happiness is the chief end, the goal of rational effort. _Antisthenes_, who was born 422 B.C., and especially _Diogenes_, went to the opposite extreme, and founded the school of _Cynics_, who looked with disdain, not only on luxuries, but on the ordinary comforts of life, and inured themselves to do without them. Their manners were often as savage as their mode of living. HISTORICAL WRITINGS.--The three principal historical writers were _Herodotus_ (c. 484-0.425 B.C.), the charming but uncritical chronicler of what he heard and saw, by whom the interference of the gods in human affairs is devoutly credited; _Thucydides_, who himself took part in the Peloponnesian war, the history of which he wrote with a candor, a profound perception of character, an insight into the causes of events, a skill in arrangement, and a condensation and eloquence of style, which are truly admirable; and _Xenophon_, an author characterized by naturalness, simplicity, and a religious spirit. GREEK LIFE.--It will be convenient to bring together here some features of Greek life, (1) _Public Buildings and Dwellings_. The Greeks almost always preferred to live in cities. These grew up about an _Acropolis_, which was a fort on a hill, generally a steep crag. This was a place of refuge, and the site of the oldest temple. It became often, therefore, a sacred place from which private dwellings were excluded. At the nearest harbor, there would be a seaport town. The _Piraeus_ was more than four miles from Athens,--a mile farther than the nearest shore, but was chosen as being an excellent harbor. Sparta, alone, had no citadel,--the access from the plain being easily defended,--and no walls. The attractive buildings in a Greek town were the public edifices. Private houses, as to the exterior, were very plain, with flat roofs, with few stories, and low. Towards the street "the house looked like a dead wall with a strong door in it," It was built round an open court: in the case of the best houses, round two courts,--one bordered by apartments for the men, the other with the rooms for women. Bedrooms and sitting-rooms were small, admitting but little light. Fresco-painting on the walls and ceilings came to be common. The furniture of the house was plain and simple, but graceful and elegant in form. The poorer classes slept on skins; the richer, on woolen mattresses laid on girths. The Greeks lived so much in the open air that they took less pains with their dwellings. The public buildings were costly and substantially built. (2) _Meals, Gymnastics, etc._ The Greeks rose early. There are no notices of a morning bath. The first meal was light. It was succeeded, as was the custom at Rome, by calls on friends. Business might follow until noon, the hour of the _dèjeuner_, or breakfast, which, in the case of the rich, was a substantial meal. Later in the day, males went to the practice of gymnastics, which were followed, in later times, by a warm bath. Towards sunset came the principal meal of the day. Conversation and music, or the attending of a feast with friends, took up the evening; if there was a festal company, often the whole night. At the dinner-table, the Greeks reclined on couches. Ladies, if allowed to be present, and children, were required to sit. Spoons, sometimes knives, but never forks, were used. (3) _Costume: Use of Wine._ The dress of the Greeks, both of men and women, was simple and graceful. The men were generally bareheaded in the streets. In bad weather they wore close-fitting caps, and, in traveling, broad-brimmed hats. In Athens and Sparta they always carried walking-sticks. The use of wine was universal. It was always mixed with water. (4) _Slaves_. Slaves were regarded as chattels. No one objected to slavery as wrong. Slaves were better treated at Athens than elsewhere, but even at Athens they were tortured when their testimony was required. They were let out, sometimes by thousands, to work in pestiferous mines. (5) _Women and Children_. In Athens, the wife had seldom learned any thing but to spin and to cook. She lived in seclusion in her dwelling, and was not present with her husband at social entertainments, either at home or elsewhere. She had few if any legal rights, although at Athens she might bring a suit against her husband for ill-treatment. Concubinage was not condemned by public opinion. There was no law against exposing infants whom the parents did not wish to bring up,--that is, leaving them where they would perish. When found and brought up, they were the slaves of the person finding them. This cruelty was frequent in the case of daughters, or of offspring weak or deformed. There were toys and games for children. _Archytas_, a philosopher, was said to have invented the child's rattle. Dolls, hoops, balls, etc., were common playthings. Boys and girls played hide and seek, blind man's buff, hunt the slipper, etc. Older people played ball, and gambled with dice. (6) _Education_. The education of boys was careful; that of girls was neglected. The boy went to or from school under the care of a slave, called _pedagogue_, or leader. Teachers were of different social grades, from the low class which taught small children, to the professors of rhetoric and philosophy. It is needless to say how much stress was laid on gymnastic and aesthetic training. Boys read _Homer_ and other authors at an early age, committing much of them to memory. They were taught to play on the harp or the flute, and to sing. Lyric poems they learned by heart. _Music_ held a very high place in the esteem of the Greeks for its general influence on the mind. Running, wrestling, throwing the dart, etc., the games practiced at the public contests, were early taught. Boys at sixteen or eighteen came of age, and were enrolled as citizens. (7) _Musical Instruments: the Dance_. Instrumental music was common among the Greeks at games and meals, and in battle. They used no bows on the stringed instruments, but either the fingers or the _plectrum_,--a stick of wood, ivory, or metal. There were three sorts of stringed instruments, the lyre, the cithara (or zithern), and the harp. The wind-instruments were the pipe, the clarionet, and the trumpet. Besides these, there were clanging instruments which were used chiefly in religious ceremonies: such were castanets, the cymbal, and the tambourine. Dancing was originally connected with religious worship. Mimetic dances were a favorite diversion at feasts. There were warlike dances by men in armor, who went through the movements of attack and defense. In mimetic dances the hands and arms played a part. There were peaceful dances or choral dances, marked by rhythmic grace. Sometimes these were slow and measured, and sometimes more lively. Specially brisk were the dances at the festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus). Symbolic dances of a religious character, these Bacchic dances were the germ of the drama. Recitations were first introduced between hymns that attended the choric dances. Then, later, followed the dialogue. (8) _Weddings and Funerals_. Marriage was attended by a religious ceremonial. There was a solemn sacrifice and a wedding-feast. The bride was conveyed to her husband's house, accompanied on the way with music and song. When a person died, his body was laid out for one day, during which the relatives and hired mourners uttered laments round the bier. Burial was at the dawn of day. In later times, a coin was put into the mouth of the corpse, with which to pay his passage to the world below. There was a funeral procession, and at the tomb a solemn farewell was addressed to the deceased by name. There was then a funeral-feast. Mourning garments were worn for a short period. The dead were buried in the suburbs of the cities, generally on both sides of a highway. In the tomb many little presents, as trinkets and vases, were deposited. (9) _Courts of Law_. At law men pleaded their own causes, but might take advice or have their speeches composed for them by others. In some cases, friends were allowed to speak in behalf of a litigant. Men like _Demosthenes_ received large fees for services of this kind. There being no public prosecutor, informers were more numerous. They became odious under the name of _sycophants_, which is supposed to have been first applied to those who informed against breakers of an old law forbidding the exportation of figs from Athens. CHAPTER IV. RELATIONS WITH PERSIA.--THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN HEGEMONY. THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND.--The _Anabasis_, the principal work of _Xenophon_, describes the retreat from the Tigris to the coast of Asia Minor, of a body of ten thousand mercenary Greek troops,--a retreat effected under his own masterly leadership. The Persian Empire, now in a process of decay, was torn with civil strife. _Xerxes_ and his eldest son had been murdered (465 B.C.). The story of several reigns which follow is full of tales of treason and fratricide. On the death of _Darius II_. (Darius Nothus) (423-404 B.C.), the younger _Cyrus_ undertook to dethrone his brother _Artaxerxes II_., and for that purpose organized, in Asia Minor, a military expedition, made up largely of hired Greek troops. At _Cunaxa_, not far from Babylon, Cyrus fell in the combat with his brother. The Persians enticed the Greek generals to come into their camp, and slew them. _Xenophon_, an Athenian volunteer who had accompanied the army, conducted the retreat of his countrymen, with whom he encountered incredible hardships in the slow and toilsome journey through _Armenia_ to _Trapezus_ (Trebizond), and thence to _Byzantium_. The story of this march, through snow, over rugged mountains, and across rapid currents, is told in the _Anabasis_. A very striking passage is the description of the joy of the Greeks when from a hilltop they first descried the Black Sea. The soldiers shouted, "The sea! the sea!" and embraced one another and their officers. THE CORINTHIAN WAR AND THE PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS.--_Tissaphernes_, the antagonist and successor of the younger _Cyrus_, was Persian governor in Asia Minor, and set out to bring under the yoke the Ionic cities which had espoused the cause of Cyrus. Sparta came to their aid, and King _Agesilaus_ defeated the Persians near the _Pactolus_ (395 B.C.). The Persians stirred up an enemy nearer home, by the use of gold, and the _Boeotians, Corinthians_, and _Argives_, jealous of Sparta, and resentful at the tyranny of her governors (harmosts), and joined by Athens, took up arms against the Lacedaemonians. _Lysander_ fell in battle with the allies (395 B.C.). The course of the war in which Conon, the Athenian commander, destroyed the Spartan fleet at _Cnidus_, made it necessary to recall Agesilaus. His victory at _Coronea_ (394 B.C.) did not avail to turn the tide in favor of Sparta. Conon rebuilt the long walls at Athens with the assistance of Persian money. The issue of the conflict was the _Peace of Antalcidas_ with Persia (387 B.C.). The Grecian cities of Asia Minor were given up to the Persians, as were the islands of _Clazomenae_ and _Cyprus_. With the exception of _Lemnos, Imbros_, and _Scyros_, which the Athenians were to control, all of the other states and islands were to be free and independent. This was a great concession to Persia. Greek union was broken up: each state was left to take care of itself as it best could. Antalcidas cared little for his country: his treaty was the natural result of Spartan aggressiveness and selfishness. CONTEST OF THEBES AND SPARTA.--The Spartans had fallen away from the old rules of life ascribed to Lycurgus. They were possessed by a greed for gold. There were extremes of wealth and poverty among them. After the treaty of Antalcidas, they still lorded it over other states, and were bent on governing in Peloponnesus. At length they were involved in a contest with _Thebes_. This was caused by the seizure of the _Cadmeia_, the Theban citadel, by the Spartan _Phoebidas_ acting in conjunction with an aristocratic party in Thebes (383 B.C.). The Theban democrats, who, under _Pelopidas_, made Athens their place of rendezvous, liberated Thebes, and expelled the Spartans from the Cadmeia. Hostile attempts of Sparta against Athens induced the Athenians to form a new confederacy (or symmachy) composed of seventy communities (378 B.C.); and, after they had gained repeated successes on the sea, the two states concluded peace. Athens had become alarmed at the increased power of Thebes, and was ready to go over to the side of Sparta, her old enemy. It was a feeling in favor of a balance of power like that which had prompted Sparta at the close of the Peloponnesian war, to refuse to consent to the destruction of Athens, which Thebes and Corinth had desired. _Cleombrotus_, king of Sparta, again invaded Boeotia. The principal Boeotian leader was _Epaminondas_, one of the noblest patriots in all Grecian history,--in his disinterested spirit and self-government resembling Washington. The Spartan king was defeated by him in the great battle of _Leuctra_ (371 B.C.), and was there slain. At this time the rage of party knew no bounds. The wholesale massacre of political antagonists in a city was no uncommon occurrence. THEBAN HEGEMONY.--The victory of Leuctra gave the hegemony to Thebes. Three times the Boeotians invaded the Spartan territory. They founded _Megalopolis_ in Arcadia, to strengthen the Arcadians against their Lacedæmonian assailants (370 B.C.). They also revived the _Messenian_ power, recalled the Messenians who had long been in exile, and founded the city of _Messene_. In the battle of _Mantinea_ (362 B.C.), _Epaminondas_, though victorious against the Spartans and their allies, was slain. Peace followed among the Grecian states, Sparta alone refusing to be a party to it. In the course of this intestine war, the Thebans had broken up the new maritime sway gained by them. PERIOD III. THE MACEDONIAN ERA. CHAPTER I. PHILIP AND ALEXANDER. THE MACEDONIANS.--The Greeks, exhausted by long-continued war with one another, were just in a condition to fall under the dominion of _Macedonia_, the kingdom on the north which had been ambitious to extend its power. The Macedonians were a mixed race, partly Greek and partly Illyrian. Although they were not acknowledged to be Greeks, their kings claimed to be of Greek descent, and were allowed to take part in the Olympian games. At first an inland community, living in the country, rough and uncultivated, made up mostly of farmers and hunters, they had been growing more civilized by the efforts of their kings to introduce Greek customs. _Archelaus_ (413-399 B.C.) had even attracted Greek artists and poets to his court. At the same time they were exerting themselves to extend their power to the sea. The people were hardy and brave. When _Epaminondas_ died, _Philip_ (359-336 B.C.) was on the Macedonian throne. He had lived three years at _Thebes_, and had learned much from Epaminondas, the best strategist and tactician of his day. The decline of public spirit in Greece had led the states to rely very much on mercenary troops, whose trade was war. Philip had a well-drilled standing army. Every thing was favorable to the gratification of his wish to make himself master of Greece. First he aimed to get possession of Greek cities in _Chalcidice_, of which _Olynthus_ was the chief. The Athenians had towns in that region, besides _Amphipolis_, which was formerly theirs. Philip contrived to make the Olynthians his allies; and then, crossing the river _Strymon_, he conquered the western part of _Thrace_, where there were rich gold mines. There, for purposes of defense, he founded the city of _Philippi_. THE SACRED WAR.--A pretext for interfering in the affairs of Greece, Philip found in the _Sacred War_ in behalf of the temple of Delphi, which had been forced to loan money to the _Phocians_ during a war waged by them against Thebes, to throw off the Theban supremacy. _Athens_ and _Sparta_ joined the Phocians. The Thessalian nobles sided with Philip. He gained the victory in his character of champion of the _Amphictyonic Council_, and took his place in that body, in the room of the Phocians (346 B.C.). But this was not accomplished until he had made peace with the Athenians, so that there was no Athenian force at the pass of Thermopylae to resist his progress. DEMOSTHENES.--The Athenians had placed themselves at the head of an _Aegean League_, and, had they managed with more spirit and prudence, they might have checked Philip. There was one man, worthy of the best days of Greece, who penetrated the designs of Philip, and exerted his great powers to stimulate his countrymen to a timely resistance. This was _Demosthenes_ (385-322 B.C.). He was the prince of the school of orators who had sprung up in these troublous times. Overcoming natural obstacles, he had trained himself with such assiduity that a place at the head of all orators, ancient and modern, is generally conceded to him. He was a great statesman, moved by a patriotic spirit: his speeches were for the welfare and salvation of the state. In 358 B.C., a war broke out between Athens and its maritime allies, in which Athens was unsuccessful. It was on the conquest of Thessaly by Philip, that _Demosthenes_ made against him the first of that series of famous speeches known as _Philippics_ (351 B.C.). In vain he urged the Athenians to rescue Olynthus. The inefficiency of the aid rendered, enabled Philip to conquer and destroy that city, and to sell its inhabitants as slaves (348 B.C.). Thirty cities he destroyed, and annexed all _Chalcidice_ to Macedon. A Macedonian party was formed at Athens, the foremost leader of which was _Aeschines_, not a good citizen, but an orator only second in rank to Demosthenes. They contended that it was futile to resist the advance of the Macedonian power. Demosthenes went at the head of an embassy to the Peloponnesian states which had taken sides with Philip, but his efforts to dissuade them from this suicidal policy were unavailing. What he wanted was a union of all Greeks against the common enemy, who was bent on robbing them of their liberty. He gathered, at length, a strong party about him at Athens. The overtures of peace from Philip, who was prosecuting his conquests in Thrace, were rejected. Athenian forces obliged the king to give up the siege of _Byzantium_ (341 B.C.). The consequent enlarged influence of Demosthenes was used by him to secure an increase of the fund for carrying on the war. But Philip had his paid supporters in all the Greek states. _Aeschines_ at Athens proved an efficient helper. A deputy at the _Amphictyonic Council_, in 338 B.C., he contrived to bring about another "holy war" against _Amphissa_ in Locris, the end being to give Philip the command. Philip seized _Elatea_, in the east of Phocis, which commanded the entrance to Boeotia and Attica. Dismay spread through Greece. _Demosthenes_ roused the Athenian assembly, where all were silent through fear, to confront Philip boldly, and himself went to Thebes, which he induced to form an alliance with Athens. But the allies were defeated at the fatal battle of _Chaeronea_ (August, 338 B.C.), where _Alexander_, Philip's youthful son, decided the fortune of the day by vanquishing the Theban "sacred band." Philip treated the Thebans with great severity. He placed a garrison in the _Cadmeia_. To Athens he granted favorable terms. Marching into Peloponnesus, he took from Sparta a large part of its territory, and apportioned it to the Messenians, Argives, and Arcadians. At a national assembly at _Corinth_, from which the Spartans were absent, Philip caused himself to be created leader of the Grecian forces against Persia, with the powers of a dictator. Each of the Greek states was to retain its autonomy; and a congress, to meet at Corinth, was to settle differences among them. Two years after the battle of Chaeronea, at the marriage festival of his daughter with the king of Epirus, Philip was assassinated by means of a conspiracy, in which his queen is thought to have been a partner. ALEXANDER THE GREAT.--Alexander was twenty years old when his father died. His bodily health and vigor qualified him for combats and toils which few soldiers in his army could endure. His energy, rapidity, and military skill lift him to a level with Hannibal and the foremost commanders of any age. He was not without a generous appreciation of art and literature. The great philosopher, _Aristotle_, was one of his tutors. For the eminent authors and artists of Greece he cherished a warm admiration. But his temper was passionate and imperious. _Homer_ was his delight, and in Homer he took Agamemnon for his model; but the direst act of cruelty done by Achilles--that of dragging _Hector_ after his chariot--he exceeded when he dragged _Batis_, a general who had opposed him, at the tail of his chariot through the streets of _Gaza_. Especially when his passions were inflamed by strong drink,--as at banquets, occasions where Macedonian princes before him had been wont to drink to excess,--he was capable of savage deeds. ALEXANDER IN GREECE: HIS ARMY.--At a congress in Corinth, Alexander was recognized as the leader and general of Greece. In the spring of 335 B.C., he made a campaign against the barbarous peoples north of Macedonia,--the Thracians, the Getae, and the Illyrians. A false report of his death led to an uprising of the Greeks. Quickly returning, he took vengeance on the _Thebans_ by razing their city to the ground, sparing only the temples and _Pindar's_ house, and by selling its thirty thousand inhabitants into slavery. Athens prayed for pardon, which was granted, even the demand for the surrender of Demosthenes and other leaders being revoked. All resistance in Greece was over. Alexander's hands were free to complete his preparations for the task of conquering the Persian Empire. His army was strong through its valor and discipline rather than its numbers. The Macedonian _phalanx_ was the most effective force which had hitherto been used in war. It was made up of foot soldiers drawn up in ranks, three feet apart, with spears twenty-one feet in length, held fifteen feet from the point. The length of the spears and the projection of so many in front of the first rank, gave to the phalanx a great advantage, although such a body of troops could be turned around with difficulty. Alexander began his battles with other troops, and used the phalanx for the decisive charge. Only native Macedonians served in the phalanx. This was the case, also, with _the Guard_, a body of infantry, and with two divisions of cavalry, one clad in heavy armor, and one in light. With these troops were Greek and barbarian soldiers, infantry and cavalry, and a division for hurling stones, which was used not only in sieges, but also in battles. There was a band of young Macedonian soldiers called _pages_, also a body-guard selected from these by promotion; and out of this the king chose his generals. The army consisted of not more than forty thousand men, but it was so organized as to be completely under the control of Alexander; and he was a military genius of the first order. THE CAMPAIGN OF ALEXANDER: TO THE BATTLE OF ISSUS.--In the spring of 334 B.C., Alexander crossed the _Hellespont_ at _Abydos_. At _Ilium_ (Troy) he performed various rites in honor of the heroes of the Trojan war, his romantic sympathy with whom was the principal tie between him and the Greeks. A Persian army disputed the passage of the _Granicus_. He was the first to enter the river, and in the battle displayed the utmost personal valor. His decisive victory caused nearly the whole of _Asia Minor_ to submit to him. _Halicarnassus_, and the few other towns that held out, were taken by storm. At _Tarsus_ he was cured by his physician, Philip, of a dangerous fever, brought on by a bath in the chilly waters of the river _Cydnus_. _Darius III_., the king of Persia, with a large army, approaching from the Euphrates, encountered him in a valley near _Issus_, in Cilicia. There (333 B.C.) was fought the memorable battle which settled the fate of the Persian Empire. The host of Darius was defeated with great slaughter; and his camp, with his treasures and his family, fell into the hands of the victor. TO THE BATTLE OF ARBELA.--After the victory of Issus, _Syria_ and _Phoenicia_ submitted, except _Tyre_, which was captured after a siege of seven months. Two thousand of the inhabitants were hung on the walls, and thirty thousand were sold into slavery. Gaza resisted, and there Alexander was severely wounded. After it was taken, he entered _Egypt_, and founded the city of ALEXANDRIA, in its consequences one of the most memorable acts of his life. He marched through _Lybia_ to the temple of _Jupiter Ammon_ (331 B.C.). Having thus subdued the lands on the west, he passed through _Palestine_ and _Syria_ by way of _Damascus_, crossed the _Euphrates_ and the _Tigris_, and met the Persian army in the plains of Gaugamela, near _Arbela_,--an army more than twenty times as large as his own (October, 331 B.C.). After a hotly contested battle, the Persians were routed, and their empire destroyed. TO THE INVASION OF INDIA.--_Babylon_ and _Susa_ with all their treasures, and, afterwards, _Persepolis_ and _Pasargadae_, fell into the conqueror's hands. He set fire to Persepolis, and sold its male inhabitants into slavery. He pursued _Darius_ into Media, Hyrcania, and Parthia, where the flying king was murdered by _Bessus_, one of his own nobles, that he might not give himself up to Alexander. He then marched east and south through _Persia_ and the modern _Afghanistan_. He tarried at _Prophthasia_ (Furrah) for two months. Here it was that he charged _Philotas_, one of his best officers, with a conspiracy against his life, and put him to death; and after this he ordered the murder of _Parmenio_, his best general, who had been a companion in arms of King Philip. Founding cities in different places as he advanced, he crossed the _Oxus_, marched through _Sogdiana_, and crossed the _Jaxartes_ (Sir-Daria). While at _Samarcand_, in a drunken revel, he slew _Clitus_, the friend who had saved his life in the battle of the Granicus. In a fit of remorse he went without food or drink for three days. In _Bactra_, the capital of _Bactria_, he married _Roxana_, a princess of the country. By this time his head was turned by his unexampled victories, conquests and power. He began to demand of his followers the cringing adulation that was paid to Oriental monarchs, and when it was denied was ready to inflict summary vengeance. TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER.--Crossing the eastern Caucasus (the _Hindu-Kush_), Alexander moved down the right bank of the _Indus_, subduing the tribes whom he met in his path. On the further side of the _Hydaspes_, he met the Indian prince _Porus_, whom he defeated and captured, and converted into an ally. He continued his marches and his line of victories as far as the river _Hyphasis_. Here the Macedonian troops would go no farther. Alexander turned back (327 B.C.), and with his army and fleet moved down the _Hydaspes_ to the _Indus_, and down the _Indus_ to the sea. _Nearchus_, his admiral, sailed along the shore to the west, while Alexander conducted the rest of the army amid infinite hardships through the desert, and finally met him on the coast. In the beginning of the year 325, he reached _Susa_. Here he plainly manifested his purpose of combining Macedonia and Greece with the East in one great empire. He adopted the Persian costume and ceremonial, and married both the daughter of _Darius III_. and the sister of _Artaxerxes III_. He prevailed on eighty of his Macedonian officers and ten thousand Macedonian soldiers to take Persian wives. For himself he exacted the homage paid to a divinity. These measures, looking to the amalgamation of Macedon and Greece with the East on terms of equality, were most offensive to the old comrades and subjects of Alexander. He was obliged to quell a mutiny, which he accomplished with consummate address and courage (July, 324 B.C.). In the marshes about Babylon, a place which he intended to make his capital, he contracted a fever, which was aggravated by daily revels, and which terminated his life (323 B.C.), after a reign of twelve years and eight months. INFLUENCE OF ALEXANDER.--The Persian Empire, when it was attacked by Alexander, was a gigantic body without much vitality. Yet to overcome it, there was requisite not only the wonderful military talents of the conqueror, but the vigilance and painstaking which equally characterized him. He has been called "an adventurer." To fight and to conquer, and to spread his dominion wherever there were countries to subdue, seems to have been his absorbing purpose. The most substantial result of his exploits, which read more like fable than authentic history, was to spread _Hellenism_,--to diffuse at least a tincture of Greek civilization, together with some acquaintance with the Greek language, over the lands of the East. This was a most important work in its bearing on the subsequent history of antiquity, and more remotely on the history of all subsequent times. CHAPTER II. THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. DIVISIONS OF THE EMPIRE.--Alexander left no legitimate children. The child of Roxana, _Alexander the Younger_, was born after his father's death. The empire naturally fell to his principal generals, of whom _Perdiccas_, having command of the great army of Asia, had the chief power. He was obliged to content his military colleagues, which he did by giving to them provinces. The principal regents, or guardians, were soon reduced to three,--_Antipater_ and _Craterus_ in Europe, and _Perdiccas_. The government was carried on in the name of Roxana's son, and of _Arrhidaeus_, the half-brother of Alexander. But _Perdiccas_ soon found that each general was disposed to be in fact a king in his own dominion. He formed the plan of seizing the empire for himself. This combined the satraps against him. Perdiccas was supported by his friend _Eumenes_, but had against him _Antipater_ and _Craterus_, the other regents, and the powerful governors, _Ptolemy Lagi_ in Egypt, and _Antigonus_ in Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphilia (322 B.C.). There followed a series of wars lasting for twenty-two years, involving numerous changes of sovereignty, and fresh partitions of territory. The rebellious satraps triumphed over the royalists, whose aim was to keep the empire intact for the family of Alexander. The ambition of _Antigonus_ to make himself the sole ruler, led to a league against him (315 B.C.). In a treaty of peace, _Cassander_, the son of Antipater, was to retain the government of Macedonia. By him _Roxana_ and the young _Alexander_ were put to death. In a second war against Antigonus, in which, as before, he was supported by his son, _Demetrius Poliorcetes_, they were completely defeated in the battle of _Ipsus_, in Phrygia (301 B.C.). Antigonus was slain: Demetrius fled to Greece. The result of this protracted contest was, that the Macedonian empire was broken into three principal states,--Macedonia under the _Antigonidae_, the descendants of Antigonus; Egypt under the _Ptolemies_; Syria under the _Seleucidae_. Besides these, there were the smaller kingdoms of _Pergamon_ and of _Bithynia_. Other states broke off from the Syrian realm of the Seleucidae. I. THE KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES. PTOLEMY LAGI (323-285 B.C.).--When _Alexander_ transferred the seat of power in Egypt from Memphis to _Alexandria_, he accomplished results which he could not at all foresee. The Greek element became predominant in Egyptian affairs. A great stimulus was given to commerce and to foreign intercourse. The Egyptians themselves entered zealously into industrial pursuits. _Ptolemy Lagi_ (Soter), the first of the new sovereigns, was wise enough to guard his own territory, and even to establish his rule in _Palestine_, _Phoenicia_, and _Coele-Syria_, but to avoid extensive schemes of conquest. Cyrenaica, on the west of Egypt, and the intermediate Lybian tribes, he subdued. Ptolemy was an absolute monarch, but he retained prominent features in the old Egyptian administrative system, gave offices to Egyptians, and protected their religion. The most important civil stations and all military offices were reserved for Graeco-Macedonians: Alexandria was a Greek city. From the beginning he fostered learning and science. He set to work to collect a great library in a building connected with his palace. He founded the _Museum_, which was a college of professors. It attracted a great body of students, and became the university of the eastern world. Under the patronage of _Ptolemy_, mathematicians, poets, and critics of high repute flourished. Among the structures raised by him were the lighthouse of vast height on the island of _Pharos_, which was connected with the shore by a mole, or causeway, a mile in length; the _Soma_, or mausoleum, containing the body of _Alexander_; the _Temple of Serapis_, completed by his son; and the _Hippodrome_. PTOLEMY PHILADELPHIA.--_Ptolemy II_., surnamed _Philadelphus_ (285-247 B.C.), with less talent for war than his father, did much to encourage commerce, and was especially active in his patronage of learning. In this last province he did a greater work than his father. He greatly enlarged the library. He drew learned men to his court from all directions. In his time the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, in the version called the _Septuagint_. Under his auspices _Manetho_ composed his _History of Egypt_. PTOLEMY EUERGETES.--_Ptolemy III_. (247-222 B.C.), surnamed _Euergetes_ (the benefactor), was the most enterprising and aggressive of this line of monarchs. Most of his conquests were not permanent, but some of them were. He was a patron of art and of literature. He raised Egypt to the highest pitch of prosperity that she ever enjoyed. The first three Ptolemies whose reigns had covered a century, were followed by a series of incompetent and depraved kings, nine in number. Ptolemy IV. (Philopator) (222-205 B.C.) was a weak and dissolute prince. In war with _Antiochus III_. (the Great) of Syria, he saved his kingdom; but his own subjects were rebellious and disaffected. _Ptolemy VI_. (Philometor) (181-148 B.C.) was a boy at his accession. His guardians engaged in war with Syria, which would have conquered Egypt but for the interposition of the Romans in his behalf (170 B.C.). II. MACEDON AND GREECE. When Alexander was in the far East, the Spartan king, _Agis III_. (330 B.C.), headed a revolt against _Antipater_; but Agis was vanquished and slain. The death of Alexander kindled the hope of regaining liberty among patriotic Greeks. Athens, under _Demosthenes_ and _Hyperides_, led the way. A large confederacy was formed. _Leosthenes_, the Greek commander, defeated Antipater, and shut him up within the walls of _Lamia_ (in Thessaly). But the Greeks were finally beaten at _Crannon_. Favorable terms were granted to their cities, except Athens and Aetolia. Twenty-one thousand citizens were deported from Athens to Thrace, Italy, and other places. The nine thousand richest citizens, with _Phocion_ at their head, the anti-democratic party, had all power left in their hands. Demosthenes, Hyperides, and other democratic leaders, were proscribed. _Demosthenes_ took refuge in the temple of Neptune, on the little island of _Calaurea_. Finding himself pursued by _Archias_, the officer of Antipater, he took poison, which he had kept by him in a quill, and died. Thus closed the life of an intrepid statesman who had served the cause of liberty and of his country through the direst perils and trials with unfaltering constancy. The democracy again acquired power temporarily, and _Phocion_ was condemned to death. _Cassander_, excluded from the Macedonian throne by his father, Antipater, supplanted _Polysperchon_, the regent (316 B.C.). He placed _Demetrius_ of _Phaleron_ in power at Athens over a democracy with restricted prerogatives. He was driven out by _Demetrius Poliorcetes_, who was helped by Athens to possess himself of Macedonia and of the most of Greece, but was compelled (287 B.C.) to give up his throne, which, however, was gained by his son, _Antigonus Gonatas_ (277 B.C.). THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE.--In 279 B.C., there occurred an irruption of the Gauls into Greece, "one of those vast waves of migration which from time to time sweep over the world." The Macedonian king, _Ptolemy Ceraunus_, was defeated by them in a great battle, captured, and put to death. It was two years before these marauders were driven out, and Macedonia acquired a settled government. This episode in history favored the growth of two leagues--the _Achaean League_ and the _Aetolian League_. In these leagues the several cities gave up to the central council much more power than Greek cities had been in the habit of granting in former unions. The Achaean League was at first made up of ten Achaean cities. About 240 B.C. _Aratus_ of Sicyon, who had brought _Sicyon_ into the league, delivered _Corinth_ from the Macedonians. To free Greek cities from subjection to them, was long a great object of the league. _Peloponnesus_, except Sparta, with _Athens_ and _Aegina_, joined it. THE AETOLIAN LEAGUE: WAR OF THE LEAGUES.--The rough Aetolians north of the Corinthian Gulf, semi-barbarous in their mode of life, formed another league, and got command of _Phocis_, _Locris_, and _Boeotia_. A praiseworthy attempt at reform was made in Sparta by the king, _Agis IV_. (240 B.C.), who was opposed by the rich, and put to death. _Cleomenes_, his successor, who had the same spirit as Agis, engaged in conflict with the Achaean League, which then called in Macedonian help (223 B.C.). It had to give up to Macedon the Corinthian citadel. _Sparta_ was overthrown. Soon a war between the two leagues broke out, when the Achaeans again called on the Macedonians for aid. These conflicts were followed by the interference of the Romans. THE EVIL OF FACTION.--The bane of Greece, from the beginning to the end of its history, was the suicidal spirit of disunion. Her power was splintered at many crises, when, if united, it might have saved the land from foreign tyranny. Her resources were drained, generation after generation, by needless local contests. She owed her downfall to the desolating influence of faction. III. THE SYRIAN KINGDOM. _Seleucus I_. (Nicator) (312-280 B.C.) was the founder of the Syrian kingdom. From Babylon he extended his dominion to the _Black Sea_, to the _Jaxartes_, and even to the _Ganges_, so far as to make the Indian prince, _Sandracottus_, acknowledge him as suzerain. From Babylon he removed his capital to _Antioch_ on the Orontes, which he founded,--a city destined to be the rival of Alexandria among the cities of the East. The effect of this removal, however, was to loosen his hold upon the Eastern provinces of his empire. _Seleucia_, on the west bank of the Tigris, he likewise founded, which became a great commercial city, but was outstripped later by the Parthian city opposite, _Ctesiphon_. The provinces beyond the Euphrates he committed to his son, _Antiochus_. With him (Antiochus I.) begins the decline of the empire through the influence of Oriental luxury and vice. Under him Syria lost the eastern part of Asia Minor through the invading Gauls, who converted northern Phrygia into _Galatia_, while north-western Lydia became the kingdom of _Pergamon_. _Antiochus II_. (261-246 B.C.) could not hold the provinces in subjection. The Parthian and Bactrian kingdoms began under his reign. _Antiochus III_. (the Great) (223-1876.0.) checked the Parthians and Bactrians, and expelled the Egyptians from Asia, but prepared for the downfall of the Syrian Empire by provoking the hostility of the Romans. BACTRIA, PARTHIA, PERGAMON, GALATIA.--_Bactria_, after it broke off from Syria, was under Greek princes until, having been weakened by the Parthians, it was conquered by the Scythians (134 B.C.). The _Parthians_ issued, as marauders, from the north border of _Iran_ (256 B.C.), under the _Arsacidae_. They gradually acquired civilization from contact with Greek culture, especially after they established the trading-city of _Ctesiphon_. About 200 B.C. the rulers of _Pontus_ made the Greek city of _Sinope_ their residence, and attained to a high degree of strength under _Mithridates VI_. (the Great). _Pergamon_ became a flourishing state under the Greek rule of _Attalus I_. (241 B.C.). It was famed for its wealth and its trade. _Eumenes II_. (197-159 B.C.) founded the library at Pergamon. For him parchment was improved, if not invented, the Egyptians having forbidden the exportation of papyrus. _Galatia_ was so named from the swarm of Gallic invaders (about 279 B.C.), who, after incursions in the East, which were continued for forty years, settled there, and by degrees yielded to the influences of Greek culture. PALESTINE: THE MACCABEES: THE IDUMAEAN PRINCES.--_Palestine_ fared comparatively well in the times when the _Ptolemies_ had control. Not so after it fell under the permanent sway of _Syria_. The Jews were surrounded and invaded by Gentilism. On three sides, there were Greek cities. The perils to which their religion was exposed by the heathen without, and by a lukewarm party within, made earnest Jews, the bulk of the people, more inflexible in their adherence to their law and customs. The party of the _Pharisees_ grew out of the intensity of the loyal and patriotic feeling which was engendered in the periods following the exile. The synagogues, centers of worship and of instruction scattered over the land, acted as a bulwark against the intrusion of heathen doctrine and heathen practices. The resistance to these dreaded evils came to a head when the Syrian ruler, _Antiochus Epiphanes_, embittered by his failures in conflict with Egypt, resolved to break down religious barriers among his subjects, and, for this end, to exterminate Jewish worship. In 168 B.C. he set up an altar to Jupiter in the temple at _Jerusalem_, and even compelled Jewish priests to immolate swine. Then the revolt broke out in which the family of Maccabees were the heroic leaders. _Judas Maccabees_ recovered the temple, but fell in battle (160. B.C.). Under his brother _Simon_, victory was achieved, and the independence of the nation secured. The chief power remained in the hands of this family, the _Asmonaean_ princes, until their degeneracy paved the way for Roman intervention under _Pompeius_. His adviser was the _Idumeaean_, _Antipater_, a Jewish proselyte, whose son _Herod_ was made king (39 B.C.). PHILOSOPHY: THE STOICS AND THE EPICUREANS.--In the Greek world the progress of investigation and reflection tended to produce disbelief in the old mythological system. Social confusion and degeneracy tended to undermine all religious faith. _Pyrrho_ (about 330 B.C.) brought forward the skeptical doctrine, that the highest wisdom is to doubt every thing. _Euhemrus_ (315 B.C.) interpreted the whole mythology as an exaggeration, by imagination and invention, of historical events which form its slender nucleus. With the loss of liberty and the downfall of the Greek states, philosophy became, so to speak, more _cosmopolitan_. It no longer exalted, in the same narrow spirit, the _Greek_ above the _barbarian_. It looked at mankind more as one community. This was a feature of the first of the two principal sects, the _Stoics_, of whom _Zeno_ (about 330 B.C.), and Chrysippus (280-207 B.C.) were the founders. They taught that _virtue_ is the _only good_; that is consists _in living according to nature_; that reason should be dominant, and tranquillity of spirit be maintained by the complete subjugation of feeling. The emotions are to be kept down by the force of and iron will. This is the Stoic _apathy_. The world is wisely ordered: whatever is, is right; yet the cause of all things is not personal. Mankind form on great community, "one city." The _Epicureans_, the second of the prominent sects,--so called from _Epicurus_, their founder (342-370 B.C.),--made _pleasure_ the chief good, which is to be secured by _prudence_, or such a regulation of our desires as will yield, on the whole, the largest fruit of happiness. They believed that the gods exist, but _denied Providence_. CULTURE.--In the Greek cities which were founded by the Macedonians, the political life and independence which Greece had enjoued did not exist. The "Hellenistic" literature and culture, as it is called, which followed, lacked the spontaneous energy and original spirit of the old time. The civilization was that of people not exclusively Greek in blood. _Alexandria_ was its chief seat. Poetry languished. It was _prose_--and prose in the form of _learned inquiries, criticism_, and _science_--that flourished. The path was the same as that marked out by Aristotle. _Theocritus_, born in Syracuse, or Cos, under _Ptolemy I._ (about 320 B.C.), had distinction as a pastoral or bucolic poet. _Euclid_, under _Ptolemy Soter_, systemized geometry. _Archimedes_, who died in 212 B.C., is said to have invented the screw, and was skillful in mechanics. _Eratosthenes_ founded descriptive astronomy and scientific chronology. "The Alexandrian age busied itself with literary or scientific research, and with setting in order what the Greek mind had done in its creative time." After Greece became subject to Rome (146 B.C.) the _Graeco Roman period_ in Greek literature begins. The Greek historian _Polybius_ stands on the border between the Alexandrian age and this next era. He was born about 210 B.C., and died about 128 B.C. LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on p. 16: Histories of Greece by GROTE (12 vols.) (democratic in his sympathies), E. CURTIUS (5 vols.), THIRLWALL (8 vols.), W. Smith (1 vol.), G. W. Cox. Busolt, _Griechische Geschichte_; Fyffe, _History of Greece_ (primer); Duncker, _History of Greece_ [separately published]; Abbott (2 vols.); Holm (4 vols.); Bury; Oman. On special periods: The writings of the ancient authors,--Herodotus (Rawlinson's translation, 4 vols.), Xenophon, THUCYDIDES (Jowett's translation, 2 vols.), Polybius, Plutarch's _Lives_. Schäfer, _Demosthenes und seine Zeit_ (3 vols.); DROYSEN, _Geschichte des Hellenismus_ (3 vols.); E. A. FREEMAN, _History of Federal Government_ (vol. i.); FINLAY, _History of Greece from the Conquest of the Romans_ (7 vols.); G. W. Cox, _History of Greece from the Earliest Period to the End of the Persian War_ (2 vols.), and _Lives of Greek Statesmen_ (1 vol.); Freeman, _History of Sicily_ (4 vols.). On special topics: BOECKH, _The Public Economy of Athens_; Coulanges, _The Ancient City_, etc.: Gõll, _Kulturbilder aus Hellas und Rom_ (3 vols.); Guhl and Koner, _The Life of the Greeks and Romans_, etc.; Green, _Greece and Greek Antiquities_ (primer); J. P. Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_, also _Rambles in Greece, Old Greek Education_, and _History of Greek Literature_ (2 vols.); Becker, _Charicles_ (a story illustrative of Greek life); F. A. Paley, _Greek Wit_ (2 vols.); Church, _Stories from Homer_; Black, _The Wise Men of Greece_; Neares, _Greek Anthology_ [in Ancient Classics for English Readers], _Chief Ancient Philosophies_ [Stoicism, etc.] (1 vol., 1880); Müller and Donaldson, _History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_ (3 vols.); Mure, _A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece_ (5 vols.); Jebb, _Attic Orators_ (2 vols.); Symonds, _The Greek Poets_ (2 vols.); G. F. Schömann, _The Antiquities of Greece_; Gladstone, _Studies on the Homeric Age_ and _Homer_; Lübke, _Outlines of the History of Art_; FERGUSSON, _History of Architecture_; D'Anvers, _Elementary History of Art_; Botsford, _Development of the Athenian Constitution_; W. W. Fowler, _The City-State of the Greeks and Romans_; Gilbert, _Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens_; Greenidge, _Handbook of Greek Constitutional History_; H. N. Fowler, _History of Greek Literature_; Marshall, _Short History of Greek Philosophy_; Gardner, _Handbook of Greek Sculpture_; Tarbell, History of Greek Art_; Tozer, _Primer of Classical Geography_; Kiepert, _Atlas Antiquus_; Cunningham, _Western Civilization_ (vol. 1); Smith (Wayte & Marindin), _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (2 vols., 1890); Seyffert (Nettleship and Sandys), _Dictionary of Classical Antiquities_. MACEDONIAN ROYAL HOUSES A.--House of Alexander the Great. (1) AMYNTAS II. | +--(4) PHILIP, _m._ | 1, Olympias; | | | +--ALEXANDER THE GREAT, _m._ | 1, Roxana; | | | +--(7) ALEXANDER. | | 2, Concubines. | | | +--Hercules. | | 2, Cleopatra; | | 3, Concubines. | | | +--(6) PHILIP ARRHIDAEUS, _m._ Eurydicé. | | | +--Thessalonica, _m._ Cassander. | | | +--Cynané _m._ Amyntas. | +--(2) ALEXANDER II. | +--(3) PERDICCAS III. | +--Amyntas, _m._ Cynané | +--Eurydicé, _m._ Philip Arrhidaeus. B.--House of Antipater. ANTIPATER. | +--(8) CASSANDER, _m._ Thessalonica. | | | +--(9) PHILIP II. | | | +--(10) ANTIPATER II. | | | +--(11) ALEXANDER. | | +--Philip. | +--Eurydicé, _m._ Ptolemy Lagi, | +--Phila, _m._ | 1, Craterus; | 2, Demetrius Poliorcetes. | +--Nicaea, _m._ Perdiccas. C.--House of Antigonus. Antigonus I. | | +--(12) DEMETRIUS I (Poliorcetes), _m._ | Phila, daughter of Antipater. | | | +--(13) Antigonus II (Gonatas), _m._ | | Phila, daughter of Seleucus Nicator. | | | | | +--(14) Demetrius II, _m._ | | 1, Stratonice; | | | | | +--(16) PHILIP III. | | | | | | | +--(17) PERSEUS, _m._ | | | | Laodicé, daughter of Seleucus Philopator. | | | | | | | +--Demetrius | | | | | +--Apama. | | | | 2, Phthia. | | | +--Craterus. | | | | | +--Alexander | | | +--Demetrius the Handsome. | | | | | +--Antigonus III (Doson), _m._ | | | Phthia, widow of Demetrius II | | | | | +--Echecrates, | | | | | +--Antigonus. | | | +--Stratonice, _m._ | | 1, Seleucus Nicator; | | 2, Antiochus Theus. | | | +--Phila. | +--Philip. [From Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_.] SECTION II. ROMAN HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. PLACE OF ROME IN HISTORY.--Rome is the bridge which unites, while it separates, the ancient and the modern world. The history of Rome is the narrative of the building up of a single City, whose dominion gradually spread until it comprised all the countries about the Mediterranean, or what were then the civilized nations. "In this great empire was gathered up the sum total that remained of the religions, laws, customs, languages, letters, arts, and sciences of all the nations of antiquity which had successively held sway or predominance." Under the system of Roman government and Roman law they were combined in one ordered community. It was out of the wreck of the ancient Roman Empire that the modern European nations were formed. Their likeness to one another, their bond of fellowship, is due to the heritage of laws, customs, letters, religion, which they have received in common from Rome. THE INHABITANTS OF ANCIENT ITALY.--Until a late period in Roman history, the Apennines, and not the Alps, were the northern boundary of Italy. The most of the region between the Alpine range and the Apennines, on both sides of the Po, was inhabited by _Gauls_, akin to the Celts of the same name north of the Alps. On the west of Gallia were the _Ligurians_, a rough people of unknown extraction. People thought to be of the same race as the Ligurians dwelt in _Sardinia_ and in _Corsica_, and in a part of _Sicily_. On the east of Gallia were the Venetians, whose lineage is not ascertained. The Apennines branch off from the Alps in a southeasterly direction until they near the Adriatic, when they turn to the south, and descend to the extreme point of the peninsula, thus forming the backbone of Italy. On the west, in the central portion of the peninsula, is the hilly district called by the ancients, _Etruria_ (now Tuscany), and the plains of _Latium_ and _Campania_. What is now termed _Campania_, the district about Rome, is a part of ancient Latium. The _Etrurians_ differed widely, both in appearance and in language, from the Romans. They were not improbably _Aryans_, but nothing more is known of their descent. In the east, in what is now _Calabria_, and in _Apulia_, there was another people, the _Iapygians_, whose origin is not certain, but who were not so far removed from the Greeks as from the Latins. The southern and south-eastern portions of the peninsula were the seat of the _Greek_ settlements, and the country was early designated _Great Greece_. Leaving out the Etrurians, Iapygians, and Greeks, Italy, south of Gallia, was inhabited by nations allied to one another, and more remotely akin to the Greeks. These Italian nations were divided into an eastern and a western stock. The western stock, the _Latins_, whose home was in Latium, were much nearer of kin to the Greeks than were the eastern. The eastern stock comprised the _Umbrians_ and the _Oscans_. It included the Sabines, Samnites, and Lucanians. We are certain, that, "from the common cradle of peoples and languages, there issued a stock which embraced in common the ancestors of the Greeks and the Italians; that from this, at a subsequent period, the Italians branched off; and that these divided again into the western and eastern stocks, while, at a still later date, the eastern became subdivided into Umbrians and Oscans." (Mommsen's _History of Rome_, vol. i., p. 36.) ITALY AND GREECE.--In two important points, Italy is geographically distinguished from Greece. The sea-coast of Italy is more uniform, not being broken by bays and harbors; and it is not cut up, like Greece, by chains of mountains, into small cantons. The Romans had not the same inducement to become a sea-faring people; there were fewer cities; there was an opportunity for closer and more extended leagues. It is remarkable that the outlets of Greece were towards the east; those of Italy towards the west. The two nations were thus averted from one another: they were, so to speak, back to back. THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.--The Greeks and Romans, although sprung from a common ancestry, and preserving common features in their language, and to some extent in their religion, were very diverse in their natural traits. The Greeks had more genius: the Romans more stability. In art and letters the Romans had little originality. In these provinces they were copyists of the Greeks: they lacked ideality. They had, also, far less delicacy of perception, flexibility, and native refinement of manners. But they had more sobriety of character and more endurance. They were a _disciplined_ people; and in their capacity for discipline lay the secret of their supremacy in arms and of their ability to give law to the world. If they produced a much less number of great men than the Greeks, there was more widely diffused among Roman citizens a conscious dignity and strength. The Roman was naturally _grave_: the fault of the Greek was _levity_. _Versatility_ belonged to the Greek: _virility_ to the Roman. Above all, the sense of right and of justice was stronger among the Romans. They had, in an eminent degree, the political instinct, the capacity for governing, and for building up a political system on a firm basis. This trait was connected with their innate reverence for authority, and their habit of obedience. The noblest product of the Latin mind is the _Roman law_, which is the foundation of almost all modern codes. With all their discernment of justice and love of order, the Romans, however, were too often hard and cruel. Their history is stained here and there with acts of unexampled atrocity. In private life, too, when the rigor of self-control gave way, they sunk into extremes of vulgar sensuality. If, compared with the Greeks, they stood morally at a greater height, they might fall to a lower depth. THE ROMAN RELIGION.--The difference between the Greek and Roman mind was manifest in the sphere of religion. Before their separation from one another they had brought from the common hearthstone elements of worship which both retained. _Jupiter_, like _Zeus_, was the old Aryan god of the shining sky. But the Greek conception, even of the chief deity, differed from the Roman. When the Romans came into intercourse with the Greeks, they identified the Greek divinities with their own, and more and more appropriated the tales of the Greek mythology, linking them to their own deities. Of the early worship peculiar to the Romans, we know but little. But certain traits always belonged to the Roman religion. Their mood was too prosaic to invent a theogony, to originate stories of the births, loves, and romantic adventures of the gods, such as the Greek fancy devised. The Roman myths were heroic, not religious: they related to the deeds of valiant men. Their deities were, in the first place, much more abstract, less vividly conceived, less endowed with distinct personal characteristics. And, secondly, their service to the gods was more punctilious and methodical. It was regulated, down to the minutiæ, by fixed rules. Worship was according to law, was something due to the gods, and was discharged, like any other debt, exactly, and at the proper time. The Roman took advantage of technicalities in dealing with his gods: he was legal to the core. The word _religion_ had the same root as _obligation_. It denoted the bondage or service owed by man to the gods in return for their protection and favor; and hence the anxiety, or scrupulous watchfulness against the omission of what is required to avert the displeasure of the powers above. ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS.--The Romans attributed their origin to the mythical _Æneas_, who fled, with a band of fugitives, from the flames of _Troy_, and whose son, _Ascanius_, or _Iulus_, settled in _Alba Longa_, in Latium. What is known of the foundation of Rome is, that it was a settlement of Latin farmers and traders on the group of hills, seven in number, near the border of Latium, on the _Tiber_. It was the head of navigation for small vessels, and Rome was at first, it would seem, the trading-village for the exchange of the products of the farming-district in which it was placed. Such an outpost would be useful to guard Latium against the _Etrurians_ across the river. Of the three townships, or clans, which united to form Rome,--the _Ramnes_, the _Tities_, and the _Luceres_,--the first and third were Latin. The second, which was _Sabine_, blended with the Roman element, as the language proves. The clans, or tribes, in Latium together formed a league, the central meeting-place of which was at first _Alba Longa_. There is some reason to think that the Sabines were from _Cures_ near Rome. Certain it is that Rome, even at the outset, derived its strength from a combination of tribes. PERIOD I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS AND THE PATRICIANS. (753-304 B.C.) CHAPTER I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS (753-509 B.C.). CHARACTER OF THE LEGENDS.--There is no doubt that the Romans lived for a time under the rule of kings. These were not like the Greek kings, hereditary rulers, nor were they chosen from a single family. But the stories told in later times respecting the kings, their names and doings, are quite unworthy of credit. They rest upon no contemporary evidence or sure tradition. To say nothing of the miraculous elements that enter into the narratives, they are laden with other improbabilities, which prove them to be the fruit of imagination. They contain impossibilities in chronology. They ascribe laws, institutions, and religion, which were of slow growth, to particular individuals, apportioning to each his own part in an artificial way. Many of the stories are borrowed from the Greeks, and were originally told by them about other matters. In short, the Roman legends, including dates, such as are recorded in this chapter, are fabrications to fill up a void in regard to which there was no authentic information, and to account for beliefs and customs the origin of which no one knew. They are of service, however, in helping us to ascertain the character of the Roman constitution, and something about its growth, in the prehistoric age. THE LEGENDARY TALES.--_Romulus_ and _Remus_, so the legend runs, were sons of the god _Mars_ by _Rhea Silvia_, a priestess of Vesta, whose father, _Numitor_, had been slain by his wicked brother, _Amulius_, who thereby made himself king of Alba Longa. The twins, by his command, were put into a basket, and thrown into the Tiber. The cradle was caught by the roots of a fig-tree: a she-wolf came out, and suckled them, and _Faustulus_, a shepherd, brought them up as his own children. _Romulus_ grew up, and slew the usurper, _Amulius_. The two brothers founded a city on the banks of the Tiber where they had been rescued (753 B.C.). In a quarrel, the elder killed the younger, and called the city after himself, _Roma_. Romulus, to increase the number of the people, founded an asylum on the Capitoline Hill, which gave welcome to robbers and fugitives of all kinds. There was a lack of women; but, by a cunning trick, the Romans seized on a large number of Sabine women, who had been decoyed to Rome, with their fathers and brothers, to see the games. The angry Sabines invaded Rome. _Tarpeia_, the daughter of the Roman captain, left open for them a gate into the Capitoline citadel, and so they won the Capitol. In the war that followed, by the intervention of the Sabine women, the Romans and Sabines agreed to live peaceably together as citizens of one town, under _Romulus_ and the Sabine, _Tatius_. After the death of Tatius, _Romulus_ reigned alone, and framed laws for the two peoples. During a thunder-storm he was translated to the skies, and worshiped as the god _Quirinus_ (716 B.C.). After a year _Numa Pompilius_, a Sabine, was elected king (715-673 B.C.). He stood in close intercourse with the gods, was full of wisdom and of the spirit of peace. He framed the religious system, with its various offices and rites. The gates of the temple of _Janus_, closed only in peace, were shut during his mild reign. He died of old age, without illness or pain. The peaceful king was followed by the warlike king, _Tullus Hostilius_ (673-641 B.C.). War breaks out with _Alba_. The two armies face each other, and the contest is decided by the single combat of the three _Horatii_, champions of the Romans, and the three _Curiatii_, champions of Alba. One Roman, the victor and sole survivor, is led to Rome in triumph. Thus _Alba_ became subject to _Rome_. Afterwards Alba was destroyed, but the Albans became Roman citizens. The fourth king, _Ancus Marcius_ (641-616 B.C.), loved peace, but could not avoid war. He fought against four Latin towns, brought their inhabitants to Rome, and planted them on the _Aventine_ hill. He fortified the hill _Janiculum_, on the right bank of the Tiber, and connected it by a wooden bridge with the town. The next king was by birth an Etruscan. _Lucumo_ and his wife, _Tanaquil_, emigrated to Rome. Lucumo took the name of _Lucius Tarquinius_, was stout, valiant, and wise, a counselor of _Ancus_, and chosen after him, instead of one of the sons of Ancus, whose guardian he was. _Tarquinius Priscus_ (616-578 B.C.)--for so he was called--waged successful wars with the Sabines, Latins, and Etruscans. The _Etruscans_ owned him for their king, and sent a crown of gold, a scepter, an ivory chair, an embroidered tunic, a purple toga, and twelve axes in as many bundles of rods. He made a reform of the laws. He built the temple of Jupiter, or the Capitol, laid out the forum for a market-place, made a great sewer to drain the lower valleys of the city, leveled a race-course between the _Aventine_ and _Palatine_ hills, and introduced games like those of the Etruscans. Tarquinius was killed by the sons of Ancus; and _Servius Tullius_ (578-534 B.C.), the son of _Ocrisia_, a slave-woman, and of a god, was made king through the devices of _Tanaquil_. He united the seven hills, and built the wall of Rome. He remodeled the constitution by the census and the division of the centuries. Under him Rome joined the Latin league. He was murdered by his flagitious son-in-law, _Tarquinius Superbus_ (534-510 B.C.)--Tarquin the Proud. He ruled as a despot, surrounding himself with a bodyguard, and, upon false accusation, inflicting death on citizens whose property he coveted. By a treacherous scheme, he got possession of the town of _Gabii_. He waged war against the _Volscians_, a powerful people on the south of Latium. He adorned Rome with many buildings, and lived in pomp and extravagance, while the people were impoverished and helpless. The inspired _Sibyl_ of _Cumae_ offered him, through a messenger, nine books of prophecies. The price required excited his scorn, whereupon the woman who brought them destroyed three. She came back with the remaining six, which she offered at the same price. On being refused in the same manner, she destroyed another three. This led Tarquin to pay the price when she appeared the third time with the books that were left. They were carefully preserved to the end, that in times of danger the will of the gods might be learned. Another story told of the haughty king was, that, when he had grown old, and was frightened by dreams and omens, he sent his two sons to consult the oracle at Delphi. With them went his sister's son, _Junius_, who was called _Brutus_ on account of his supposed silliness, which was really feigned to deceive the tyrant. The offering which he brought to the Delphian god was a simple staff. His cousins, who laughed at him, did not know that it was stuffed with gold. The god, in answer to a question, said that he would reign at Rome who should first kiss his mother. _Brutus_ divined the sense of the oracle, pretended to stumble, and kissed the mother earth. The cruel outrage of _Sextus Tarquinius_, the king's son, of which _Lucretia_, the wife of their cousin, was the pure and innocent victim, caused the expulsion of the house of Tarquin, and the abolishing of regal government. Her father and husband, with Brutus and the noble _Publius Valerius Poplicola_, to whom she related "the deed of shame" wrought by Sextus, swore, at her request, to avenge her wrong. She herself plunged a dagger into her heart, and expired. _Brutus_ roused the people, and drove out the _Tarquins_. Two _consuls_ were appointed in the room of the king, who should rule for one year. _Brutus_ was one. When it was ascertained that his own sons had taken part in a conspiracy of the higher class to restore Tarquinius, the stern Roman gave orders to the lictors to scourge them, and to cut off their heads with the ax. Now the senate and people decreed that the whole race of Tarquinius should be banished for ever. Tarquinius went among the Etruscans, and secured the aid of the people of _Tarquinii_, and of _Veii_. In a battle, _Aruns_, the son of Tarquinius, and _Brutus_, both mounted, ran upon one another, and were slain. Each army marched to its home. Tarquinius then obtained the help of _Porsena_, king of the Etruscans, with a strong army. They took _Janiculum_; but _Horatius Cocles_, with two companions, posted himself at the entrance of the bridge, and kept the place, Horatius remaining until the bridge had been torn away behind him. He then, with his armor on, leaped into the river, and swam back to the shore. The town was hard pressed by the enemy and by famine. _Mucius Scaevola_ went into _Porsena's_ camp, resolved to kill him. But he slew another whom he mistook for the king. When threatened with death, he thrust his right hand into the fire, to show that he had no fear. _Porsena_, admiring his courage, gave him his freedom; and, on being informed that three hundred young Romans were sworn to undertake the same deed which _Mucius_ had come to perform, _Porsena_ made peace without requiring the restoration of Tarquinius. _Tarquinius_, not despairing, persuaded the _Tusculans_ and other _Latins_ to begin war against Rome. The Romans appointed a dictator to meet the exigency, _Marcus Valerius_. In a battle near _Lake Regillus_, when the Romans began to give way, the dictator invoked _Castor_ and _Pollux_, vowing to dedicate a temple to them in case he was victorious. Two young men on white chargers appeared at the head of the Roman troops, and led them to victory. _Tarquinius_ now gave up his effort, and went to _Cumae_ to the tyrant _Aristodemus_, where he lived until his death. TRUTH IN THE LEGENDS.--There are certain facts which are embedded in the legends. _Alba_ was at one time the head of the Latin confederacy. The _Sabines_ invaded Latium, settled on some of the hills of Rome, allied themselves with the _Romans_, and the two peoples were resolved into one federal state. This last change was a very important step. The tradition of a doubling of the senate and of two kings, _Romulus_ and _Taiius_, although not in literal form historical, is believed to be a reminiscence of this union. It is thought that the earliest royalty was priestly in its character, and that this was superseded by a military kingship. It is probable that the _Etruscans_ who had made much progress in civilization, in the arts and in manufactures, gained the upper hand in _Latium_. The insignia of the Roman kings were Etruscan. The Etruscan kings were driven out. There were advances in civilization under them, the division of the people into classes took place, and at that period structures like the "Servian" wall were built. PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS.--The Romans from the beginning were divided into the upper class, the _Patricians_, and the common people, or _Plebeians_, who were free, but, like the _perioeci_ and _metoeci_ in Greece, had no political rights. The plebeians, as they included the conquered class, were not all poor. A part of them, who were under the special protection of citizens, their _Patrons_, were called _Clients_. The patricians were the descendants of the first settlers and proprietors. Under the old constitution, ascribed in the legends to _Romulus_, the patricians alone formed the military force, and were styled the _Populus_. They were divided into _curiae_ (districts or wards), at first ten in number, and, after the union of the Romans with the _Tities_ and _Luceres_, thirty. Each _curia_ was divided into ten families, or _gentes_. The assembly of the citizens was called the _Comitia Curiata_. The _Comitia_ chose the _King_. The _Senate_ was a council of elders representing in some way the gentes. The clan, or _gens_, was always of great consequence among the Romans. Its name was a part of the proper name of every citizen. The particular or individual names in vogue were not numerous. The name of the gens was placed between the personal name, or the _praenomen_, and the designation of the special family (included in the gens). Thus in the case of Caius Julius Caesar, "Julius" was the designation of the gens, "Caesar," of the family, while "Caius" was the personal name. THE EARLY CONSTITUTION.--The "Servian constitution" made all land-owners, whether patrician or plebeian, subject to taxation, and obliged to do military service. The cavalry--the _Equites_, or knights,--was made up, by adding to the six patrician companies already existing, double the number from both classes. The infantry were organized without reference to rank, but were graded according to their property. The whole people were divided thus into five classes, and, when assembled, formed the _Comitia Centuriata_,--as being made up of the companies called "centuries," or "hundreds." At first this body was only consulted by the king in regard to offensive wars. Gradually it drew away more and more power from the _Comitia Curiata_, which consisted solely of patricians. Those who had no land were now distinguished from the land-owning plebeians. For the purposes of conscription, the city was divided into four _Tribes_, or wards. Every four years a _census_ was to be taken. MAGISTRATES.--When the kingship was abolished, and under the system that followed, the two _Consuls_ were to be patricians. They exercised regal power during their term of office. They appointed the senators and the two _Quaestors_, who came to have charge of the treasury, under consular supervision. The consuls were attended by twelve _Lictors_, who carried the _fasces_--bundles of rods fastened around an ax,--which symbolized the power of the magistrate to flog or to behead offenders. The _Comitia Centuriata_ acquired the right to elect the consuls, to hear appeals in capital cases from their verdicts, and to accept or reject bills laid before it. This was a great gain for the plebeians. Yet the patricians were strong enough in this assembly to control its action. On occasions of extraordinary peril, a _Dictator_ might be selected by one of the consuls, who was to have absolute authority for the time. The Senate commonly had an important part, however, in the selection of this officer. There was a _Master of Horse_ to command the knights under him. He was appointed by the dictator. RELIGION.--Worship in families was conducted by the head of the household, the _paterfamilias_, who offered the regular sacrifices. But, as regards the whole people, worship was under the direction of the pontiffs, with the chief pontiff, the _Pontifex Maximus_, at their head, and in the hands of the priests. These were all officers of the state, elected to their places, and entirely subordinate to the civil magistrates. The _pontiffs_ were not so much priests as they were guardians and interpreters of divine law. They were masters of sacred lore. They looked out that the numberless and complex rules in respect to religious observances should be strictly complied with. At the same time they had enough knowledge of astronomy to enable them to fix the days suitable for the transaction of business, public or private. They had the control of the calendar. The _Augurs_ consulted the will of the gods as disclosed in omens. The augur, his eyes raised to the sky, with his staff marked off the heavens into four quarters, and then watched for the passage of birds, from which he took the auspices. In early times, there was an implicit faith in these supposed indications of the will of the divinities; but this credulity passed away, and the auguries became a political instrument for helping forward the schemes of some person or party. Besides the college of pontiffs and the college of augurs, there was the college of _Fetiales_, who were the guardians of the public faith in relation to other peoples, and performed the rites attending the declaration of war or the conclusion of peace. The _Soothsayers_ (haruspices) were of Etruscan origin. They ascertained the will of the gods by inspecting the entrails of the slaughtered victims. The _Flamens_ were the priests having charge of the worship of particular divinities. The _Vestals_ were virgin priestesses of Vesta, who ministered in her temple, and kept the sacred fire from being extinguished. The chief gods worshiped by the Romans were _Jupiter_, god of the sky; his wife, _Juno_, the goddess of maternity; _Minerva_, the goddess of wisdom; _Apollo_, the god of augury and the arts; _Diana_, the goddess of the chase and archery; _Mars_, the god of war; _Bellona_, the goddess of war; _Vesta_, patron of the Roman state and of the national hearthstone; _Ceres_, the goddess of agriculture; _Saturnus_, the patron of husbandry; _Hercules_, the Greek god, early naturalized in Italy as the god of gain and of mercantile contracts; _Mercury_, the god of trade; _Neptune_ god of the sea. _Venus_ was an old Roman goddess, who presided over gardens, but gradually was identified with the Grecian _Aphrodite_. _Lares_ and _Penates_ were household divinities, guardians of the family. The Romans assigned a spirit to almost every thing. Each individual had his own protecting _genius_. _Janus_ was the god of beginnings, _Terminus_ was the god of the boundary, _Silvanus_ of the forest, _Vertumnus_ of the circling year. The farmer, in each part of his labor,--in harrowing, plowing, sowing, etc.,--invoked a spirit. So marriage, birth, and every natural event had each a sacred life of its own. Not less than forty-three distinct divinities are spoken of by name as having to do with the actions of a child. Thus the number of divinities was countless. Gods were great or small, according to the department of nature or of life where they severally were present and active. CHAPTER II. ROME UNDER THE PATRICIANS (509-304 B.C.). RIVALRY OF CLASSES.--The abolishing of royalty left Rome as "a house divided against itself." The power granted to the _Comitia Centuriata_ did not suffice to produce contentment. The patricians still decided every thing, and used their strength in an oppressive way. Besides the standing contest between the patricians and plebeians, there was great suffering on the side of the poorer class of plebeians. Many were obliged to incur debts; and their creditors enforced the rigorous law against them, loading them with chains, and driving their families from their homes. A great and constant grievance was the taking by the patricians of the public lands which had been obtained by conquest, for a moderate rent, which might not be paid at all. If they granted a share in this privilege to some rich plebeian houses, this afforded no help to the mass of the people, who were more and more deprived of the opportunity to till the smaller holdings in consequence of the employment of slaves. Yet the plebeians had to bear the burden of military service. At length they rose in a body, probably in returning from some victory, and encamped on a hill, the _Sacred Mount_, three miles from Rome, where they threatened to stay, and found another town. This bold movement led to an agreement. It was stipulated that they should elect magistrates from their own class, to be called _Tribunes of the People_, who should have the right to interpose an absolute veto upon any legal or administrative measure. This right each consul already had in relation to his colleague. To secure the commons in this new right, the tribunes were declared to be inviolable. Whoever used violence against them was to be an outlaw. The power of the tribunes at first was merely protective. But their power grew until it became controlling. One point where their authority was apt to be exerted was in the conscription, or military enrollment. This, if it were undertaken in an unfair way, they could stop altogether, and thus compel a change. THE PLEBEIAN ASSEMBLY.--Not far from this time, there was instituted a new assembly, the _Comitia of Tribes, or Comitia Tributa_. There was a new division of the people into tribes or wards,--first twenty, then twenty-one, and, later, thirty-five. In this comitia, the plebeians were at the outset, if not always, the exclusive voters. The patricians had their assembly, the _Comitia Curiata_. The Comitia of the Tribes, which was then controlled by the plebeians, chose the tribunes. By degrees, both the other assemblies lost their importance. The plebeian body more and more extended its prerogatives. Besides the tribunes, the _Aediles_, two in number, who were assistants of the tribunes, and superintended the business of the markets, were chosen by the _Comitia Tributa_. THE LAW OF CASSIUS.--The anxiety of the plebeians to be rid of the restrictions upon the holding and enjoyment of land, led to the proposal of a law for their relief by the consul _Spurius Cassius_ (486 B.C.). Of the terms of the law, we have no precise knowledge. We only know, that, when he retired from office, he was condemned and put to death by the ruling class. WAR WITH THE AEQUIANS AND THE VOLSCIANS.--About this time Rome concluded a league with the _Latins_, and soon after with another people, the _Hernicans_, who lived farther eastward, between the, Aequians and Volscians. It was a defensive alliance, in which Rome had the leading place. Then follow the wars with the _Aequians_ and _Volscians_, where the traditional accounts are mingled with many fictitious occurrences. There are two stories of special note,--the story of Coriolanus, and the story of Cincinnatus. It is related that a brave patrician, _Caius Marcius Coriolanus_, at a time when grain was scarce, and was procured with difficulty from Etruria and Sicily for the relief of the famishing, proposed that it should be withheld from the plebeians unless they would give up the tribunate. The anger of this class, and the contempt which he showed for it, caused him to be banished. Thereupon he went to the _Volscians_, and led an army against Rome,--an army too strong to be resisted. One deputation after another went out of the city to placate him, but in vain. At length _Veturia_, his mother, and _Volumnia_, his wife, at the head of a company of matrons, went to his camp, and entreated him. Their prayer he could not deny, but exclaimed, "O my mother! Rome thou hast saved, but thou hast lost thy son." He died among the Volscians (491 B.C.). The tale, certainly in most of its parts, is fictitious. For example, he is said to have been called _Coriolanus_, from having previously conquered _Corioli_; but such designations were not given among the Romans until centuries later. The story of _Cincinnatus_ in essential particulars is probably true. At a time when the Romans were hard pressed by the _Æquians_, the messengers of the Senate waited on Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, formerly a senator and a consul of renown in peace and war, and asked him to become dictator. They found him plowing in his field. He accepted the post, by his prudence and vigor delivered the state, and on the sixteenth day laid down his office, and went back to his farm. The time required by the hero for his task was doubtless much longer than the legend allows. There is an authentic tradition of a war with the _Etruscans_, who had retained certain towns on the Roman side of the Tiber. The Romans established a fort on the _Cremera_, not far from _Veii_, which was one of them. In the course of this struggle, it is said that all the _Fabii_,--a distinguished Roman family,--except one boy, were perfidiously slain. This is an exaggerated tale. A truce was concluded with _Veii_-in 474 B.C. for forty years, which left Rome free to fight her enemies on the east and south. THE DECEMVIRS.--The internal conflict of the patricians against the commons in Rome went on. In 471 B.C. the _Publilian Law_ was passed to establish fully the right of the plebeians alone to elect their tribunes, or to exclude the upper class from their comitia. The claims of the plebeians, who formed the greater part of the fighting men, rose. They demanded first, however, that they should have the same _private_ rights as the patricians, and that the laws should be made more efficient for their protection by being reduced to a code. This was the object of the _Terentilian Law_, proposed in 462. The result was a great dispute. Some concessions failed to satisfy the plebeians. Finally it was agreed that ten men, _Decemvirs_, should be chosen indiscriminately from both classes to frame a code, they, meantime, to supersede the consuls and tribunes in the exercise of the government (451 B.C.). They were to equalize the laws, and to write them down. The story of the mission to Athens for the study of the laws of _Solon_, is not worthy of credit. There is no doubt, however, that many obstacles were put in the way of the project by the conservative patricians, and that one of their order, _Appius Claudius_, took a prominent part, probably on the side of the people. VIRGINIUS.--Here comes in the story of _Virginia_. It is related that _Appius Claudius_ was an ambitious and bad man, who, being one of the decemvirs, wished to hold on to power. He conceived a base passion for the daughter of _Virginius_, a brave plebeian centurion, and claimed her on the pretense that she was the daughter of one of his slaves. Standing at his judgment-seat, _Virginius_, seeing that he could do nothing to save his child from the clutch of the villainous judge, plunged his dagger in her heart. This was the signal for another revolt of the people, which extorted the consent of the upper class to the sacred laws and the restoration of the tribuneship. It is a plausible theory that _Appius Claudius_ favored the plebeian claims, and that the tale told above is a later invention to his discredit. POLITICAL EQUALITY.--The laws of the twelve tables lay at the basis of all subsequent legislation in Rome, and were always held in reverence. The plebeians soon gained further advantages. In 449 B.C., it was ordained, under the consuls _Horatius_ and _Valerius_, that the plebeian assembly of tribes should be a sovereign assembly, whose enactments should be binding on the whole Roman people. In 445 B.C., the law of _Canuleius_ legalized marriage between the plebeians and patricians. This was an important step towards the closer union of the two classes. The executive power was still in the hands of the patricians. But in 444 a new office, that of _military tribunes_ with consular power, to be chosen from the plebeians, was established. By way of offset to this great concession, a new patrician office, that of _Censor_, was created. The function of the two censors, who were to be chosen by the _Comitia Centuriata_, was to take the census at short intervals, to make out the tax-lists, to appoint senators and knights, to manage the collection of taxes, to superintend public buildings, and, finally, to exercise an indefinite supervision over public manners and morals. These were very great powers. We find that considerable time elapsed before the plebeians actually realized the advantage which they had legally won in this compromise. About the year 400, they succeeded in electing several military tribunes. As early as 410 B.C. three out of the four treasurers, or paymasters (_quæstors_), were plebeians. About forty years after (367 B.C.), they obtained, by the _Licinian Laws_, the political equality for which they had so long contended. WAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS.--But before this result should be reached, other events of much consequence were to occur. The _Etruscans_, who were not only proficients in the arts, but were also active in trade and commerce, had been defeated at sea by the Greeks, in 474 B.C. But on the north they had a more formidable foe in the _Gauls_, by whom their power was weakened. The Romans took advantage of the situation to lay siege to _Veii_, which, after ten years, was captured by their general, _Marcus Furius Camillus_. The capture of other towns followed. It was told of _Camillus_ that _Falerii_ surrendered to him of its own accord, for his magnanimity in sending back a treacherous schoolmaster who had taken out to his camp the sons of the chief citizens. Camillas tied his hands behind him, and ordered the boys to flog him back into the city. Camillus was sent into exile, it was related, on a charge of injustice in dividing the booty obtained at Veii. INVASION OF THE GAULS.--But the Romans joined with the Etruscans in the attempt to drive back a dreaded enemy of both, the _Gauls_. In the battle of the _Allia_, a brook eleven miles north of Rome, on the 18th of July, 390 B.C., the Roman army was routed by them, and Rome left without the means of defense. All the people fled, except a few brave men, who shut themselves up in the Capitol, and, according to the tradition, some aged patricians, who, in their robes of state, waited for the enemy. The Gauls, under _Brennus_, rushed in, and plundered and burned the city. In later times the story was told, that, when the Gauls were climbing up to the Capitol secretly by night, the cackling of the geese awoke _Marcus Manlius_, and so the enemy was repulsed. There was another story, that, when the Romans were paying the ransom required by _Brennus_, and complained of false weight, the insolent Gaul threw his sword into the scale, exclaiming, "Woe to the conquered!" and that just then _Camillus_ appeared, and drove the Gauls out of the city. This is certain, that the Gauls retired of their own free will from their occupation of the city. The destruction of the temples involved the loss of early chronicles, which would have given us better information as to the times preceding. The city was rebuilt without much delay. THE LICINIAN LAWS.--The agitation for political reform soon commenced again. The _Licinian Laws_, which make an epoch in the controversy of parties, were proposed in 376, but were not passed until 367. Besides provisions for the relief of debtors and for limiting the number of acres of public lands to be held by an individual, it was enacted that the military tribuneship should be given up, and that at least one of the two consuls must be chosen from the plebeians. A new patrician office, the _praetorship_, was founded, the holders of which were to govern in the absence of the consuls. The patricians did not at once cease from the effort to keep the reins in their hands. Several times they broke the law, and put in two patrician consuls. They yielded at last, however; and, as early as the year 300, all Roman offices were open to all Roman citizens. The patrician order became a social, not a legal, distinction. A new sort of nobility, made up of both patricians and plebeians, whose families had longest held public offices, gradually arose. These were the _optimates_. The Senate became the principal executive body. It was recruited by the _censors_, principally from those who had held high stations and were upwards of thirty years old. One _censor_ was required to be a plebeian. The condition of the people was improved by other enactments, one of which (in 326 or 313) secured to the debtor his personal freedom in case he should transfer his property to the creditor. At about this time, there was a change in the constitution of the army. The sort of arms assigned was no longer to depend on property qualifications. There were to be three lines in battle,--the first two to carry a short spear (_pilum_), and the third the long lance (_hasta_). INFULENCE OF PARTY CONFLICTS.--The long contest of parties in Rome was an invaluable political education. It was attended with little bloodshed. It involved discussion on questions of justice and right, and on the best civil constitution. It was not unlike party conflicts in English history. It trained the Romans in a habit of judicious compromise, of perseverance in asserting just claims, and of yielding to just demands. PERIOD II. TO THE UNION OF ITALY. (304-264 B.C.) CHAPTER I. CONQUEST OF THE LATINS AND ITALIANS (304-282 B.C.). WARS WITH THE GAULS.--The increased vigor produced by the adjustment of the conflict of classes manifested itself in a series of minor wars. The Romans were now able to face the Gauls, who had permanently planted themselves in Northern Italy. Against them they waged four wars in succession, the last of which ended in a signal victory for the Roman side (367-349). Wars with the Etruscan cities brought the whole of Southern _Etruria_ under Roman rule (358-351). FIRST SAMNITE WAR.--The neighbor that was the hardest for the Romans to conquer was the nation of _Samnites_, who lived among the Apennines of Central Italy, east of Latium. The conflict with this tough tribe lasted, with intermissions, for fifty years. The immediate occasion of the struggle was the appeal of _Capua_--a Greek city in Campania in which Samnites had before settled--for help against their kinsmen in the mountains (343). This prayer the Romans granted when Capua had placed itself under their sway. In the first battle, the Romans under _Valerius Corvus_ won the day. A second Roman army was rescued from imminent danger by the heroism of the elder _Decius Mus_, and a Roman victory followed. After a third victory at _Suessula_, the Romans, on account of the threatening attitude of their Latin confederates, made peace. The Samnites, too, were involved in a war with _Tarentum_, a Greek city on the eastern coast. WAR WITH THE LATINS.--The Latins were not disposed to recognize Rome any longer as the head of the league. They demanded perfect equality and an equal share of the Roman public offices (340). In a battle near _Vesuvius_, the plebeian consul, _Decius Mus_, having devoted himself to death for his country, rode into the thickest ranks of the enemy, and perished, having secured victory for the Roman army. Before the battle, the patrician consul, _Titus Manlius_, punished his son with death for presuming to undertake, without orders, a military exploit, in which, however, he had succeeded. After a second victory of Manlius at _Trifanum_, the Latins were subdued (340), the league was broken up, and most of the cities were made subject to Rome, acquiring citizenship without the right of suffrage; but they were forbidden to trade or to intermarry with one another. Some became Roman colonies. Several had to cede lands, which were apportioned among Roman citizens. The beaks (_rostra_) of the old ships of _Antium_ ornamented the Roman forum. Colonies of Roman citizens were settled in the district of the _Volscii_ and in _Campania_. This was an example of the Roman method of separating vanquished places from one another, and of inclosing as in a net conquered territories. SECOND SAMNITE WAR.--The establishment by the Romans of the military colony of _Fregellae_, in connection with other encroachments, brought on the second Samnite war, which lasted for twenty-two years. The prize of the contest was really the dominion over Italy. A great misfortune befell the Roman arms in 321. The incautious consuls, _Veturinus_ and _Postumius_, allowed themselves to be surrounded in the _Caudine Pass_, where they were compelled to capitulate, swear to a treaty of peace, and give up six hundred Roman knights as hostages. The whole Roman army was compelled to pass under the yoke. The Roman Senate refused to sanction the treaty, and gave up the consuls, at their own request, in fetters to the Samnites. The Samnites refused to receive them, spared the hostages, and began the war anew. The Roman consuls, _Papirius Cursor_ and _Fabius Maximus_, gained a victory at _Capua_, drove the Samnites out of Campania, and reconquered _Fregellae_. A great military road, the _Appian Way_, the remains of which may still be seen, was built from _Rome_ to _Capua_ (312). The _Etruscan_ cities joined in the war against Rome. All Etruria was in arms to overcome the advancing power of the Romans. The coalition was broken by the great defeat of the Etrurians at the _Vadimonian Lake_, in 310. The Samnites had their numerous allies; but the obstinate valor of the Romans, who were discouraged by no reverses, triumphed. The capture of _Bovianum_, the capital of the Samnite league (305), ended the war. The Samnites sued for peace. The old treaties were renewed. In the course of this protracted struggle, various Roman colonies were established, and military roads were constructed. THIRD SAMNITE WAR.--Peace was not of long continuance. The Samnites once more armed themselves for a desperate conflict, having on their side the _Etruscans_, the _Umbrians_, and the _Gauls_ (300). The Italian peoples, which had been at war with one another, joined hands in this contest against the common enemy. A decisive battle was fought at _Sentinum_,--where _Decius Mus_ the younger, following his father's example, devoted himself to death,--resulting in the defeat of the Samnites, and of their allies (295). Soon after, the Samnite general, _Pontius_, fell into the hands of the Romans. The Samnites kept up the contest for several years. But in 290 they found that they could hold out no longer. The Romans secured themselves by fortresses and by colonies, the most important of which was that of _Venusia_, at the boundary of Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania, where they placed twenty thousand colonists. CHAPTER II. WAR WITH PYRRHUS AND UNION OF ITALY (282-264 B.C.). TARENTUM AND PYRRHUS.--The Samnites were overcome. The Greeks and Romans were now to come into closer intercourse with one another,--an intercourse destined to be so momentous in its effect on each of the two kindred races, and, through their joint influence, on the whole subsequent course of European history. _Alexander the Great_ had died too soon to permit him to engage in any plan of conquest in the West. In the wars of his successors the Romans had stood aloof. Now they were brought into conflict with a Greek monarch, _Pyrrhus_, king of Epirus, who was a relative of Alexander, and had married into the royal family of Egypt. He was a man of fascinating person and address, a brilliant and famous soldier, but adventurous, and lacking the coolness and prudence requisite to carry out his project of building up an Hellenic Empire in the western Mediterranean. In the war against the Samnite coalition, the _Lucanians_ had rendered decisive support to the Romans. This was one reason why _Tarentum_, the rich and prosperous Dorian city on the Tarentine Gulf, had been a spectator of the contest in which it had abundant occasion to feel a deep interest. Rome had given up to the Lucanians the non-Dorian Greek cities in that region. But when they sought to subdue _Thurii_, and the Thurines besought the help of Rome, offering to submit themselves to her, the Romans warned the Lucanians to desist. This led to another combination against Rome, in which they took part. A Roman army was destroyed by the _Senonian Gauls_. In consequence of this, the Romans slaughtered, or drove out of Umbria, this people, and, gaining other decisive victories, put their garrisons into _Locri_, _Crotona_, and _Thurii_. The Romans were already masters of Central Italy. Only the Greek cities on the south remained for them to conquer. It was high time for _Tarentum_ to bestir itself. It was from the side of Tarentum that the immediate provocation came. The Tarentines were listening to a play in the theater as ten Roman ships came into the harbor. Under a sudden impulse of wrath, a mob attacked them, and destroyed five of them. Even then the Romans were in no haste to engage in hostilities. The Tarentines themselves were divided as to the policy best to be pursued. But the war-party had the more voices. An embassy was dispatched to solicit the help of _Pyrrhus_. At Tarentum an embassy from Rome was treated with contempt. _Pyrrhus_ came over with a large army. He obliged the Tarentines themselves to arm, and to join his forces. EVENTS OF THE WAR.--The Romans were fully alive to the peril, and prepared to meet it. Even the proletarians, who were not liable to military service, were enrolled. The first great battle took place at _Heraclea_, near the little river Siris (280 B.C.). Then the Roman cohort and the Macedonian phalanx met for the first time. It was a collision of trained mercenary troops with the citizen soldiery of Rome. It was a struggle between the Greek and the Roman for the ascendency. The confusion caused by the elephants of _Pyrrhus_, an encounter with which was something new and strange to the Romans, turned the tide in his favor. "A few more such victories," said Pyrrhus, "and I am ruined." He desired peace, and sent _Cineas_ as a messenger to the Senate. But _Appius Claudius_, who had been consul and censor, and was now old and blind, begged them not to make peace as long as there was an enemy in Italy. _Cineas_ reported that he found the Senate "an assembly of kings." In the next year, the two armies, each with its allies numbering seventy thousand men, met at _Asculum_ (279). After a bloody conflict, _Pyrrhus_ remained in possession of the field, but with an enormous loss of men. The _Syracusans_ in Sicily, who had been hard pressed by the _Carthaginians_, now called upon him to aid them. He was not reluctant to leave Italy. The Romans captured all the cities on the south coast, except _Tarentum_ and _Rhegium_. After two years' absence, _Pyrrhus_ returned to Italy. His fleet, on the passage from Sicily, was defeated by the Carthaginians. At _Beneventum_, he was completely vanquished by the Romans, who captured thirteen hundred prisoners and four elephants. Pyrrhus returned to Epirus; and, after his death (272), _Milon_, who commanded the garrison left by him in _Tarentum_, surrendered the city and fortress. The Tarentines agreed to deliver up their ships and arms, and to demolish their walls. One after another of the resisting tribes yielded to the Romans, ceding portions of their territory, and receiving Roman colonies. In 266, the Roman sway was established over the whole peninsula proper, from the _Rubicon_ and the _Macra_ to the southern extremity of _Calabria_. CITIZENSHIP.--In order to understand Roman history, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the Roman system in respect to citizenship. All burgesses of Rome enjoyed the same rights. These were both _Public_ and _Private_. The private rights of a Roman citizen were (1) the power of legal marriage with the families of all other citizens; (2) the power of making legal purchases and sales, and of holding property; and (3) the right to bequeath and inherit property. The public rights were, (1) the power of voting wherever a citizen was permitted to vote; (2) the power of being elected to all offices. CONQUERED TOWNS.--"The Roman dominion in Italy was a dominion of a city over cities." With regard to conquered towns, there were, (i) Municipal cities (_municipia_) the inhabitants of which, when they visited Rome, could exercise all the rights of citizens. (2) Municipal cities which had the private, but not the public, rights of citizenship. Some of them chose their own municipal officers, and some did not. (3) _Latin Colonies_, as they were called. Lands ceded by conquered places were divided among poor Roman citizens, who constituted the ruling class in the communities to which they were transplanted. In the Latin colonies, the citizens had given up their _public_ rights as citizens. (4) Towns of a lower class, called _Praefectures_. In these, the principal magistrate was the _Prefect_, who was appointed by the _Praetor_ (_Praeter Urbanus_) at Rome. THE ALLIES (_Socii_).--These were a more favored class of cities. They had their relation to Rome defined by treaty. Generally they appointed their own magistrates, but were bound, as were all subject cities, to furnish auxiliary troops for Rome. THE LATIN FRANCHISE.--This was the privilege which was first given to the cities of _Latium_ and then to inhabitants of other places. It was the power, on complying with certain conditions, of gaining full citizenship, and thus of taking part in elections at Rome. ROMAN COLONIES.--The _Roman Colony_ (which is not to be confounded with the _Latin Colony_ referred to above) was a small body of Roman citizens, transplanted, with their families, to a spot selected by the government. They formed a military station. To them lands taken from the native inhabitants were given. They constituted the ruling class in the community where they were established. Their government was modeled after the government at Rome. They retained their rights as Roman burgesses, which they could exercise whenever they were in that city. By means of these colonies, planted in places wisely chosen, Italy was kept in subjection. The colonies were connected together by roads. The _Appian Way_, from _Rome_ to _Capua_, was built in the midst of the conflict with _Samnium_. It was made of large, square stones, laid on a platform of sand and mortar. In later times the Roman Empire was traversed in all directions by similar roads. PERIOD III. THE PUNIC WARS: TO THE CONQUEST OF CARTHAGE AND OF THE GREEK STATES. (264-146 B.C.) CHAPTER I. THE FIRST AND SECOND PUNIC WABS (264-202 B.C.). THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.--By dint of obstinacy, and hard fighting through long centuries, the Romans had united under them all Italy, or all of what was then known as Italy. It was natural that they should look abroad. The rival power in the West was the great commercial city of _Carthage_. The jealousy between Rome and Carthage had slumbered so long as they were threatened by the invasion of _Pyrrhus_, which was dangerous to both. _Sicily_, from its situation, could hardly fail to furnish the occasion of a conflict. The _Mamertines_, a set of Campanian pirates, had captured _Messana_. They were attacked by _Hiero II_., king of Syracuse. A part of them besought help of the Romans, and a part applied to the Carthaginians. The gravity of the question, whether Rome should enter on an untried path, the end of which no man could foresee, caused hesitation. The assemblies voted to grant the request. The Romans had begun as early as 311 to create a fleet. The ships which they now used, however, were mostly furnished by their South Italian allies. They crossed the channel, and drove out the Carthaginian garrison from _Messana_. The Carthaginians declared war (264). _Hiero_ was gained over to the side of the Romans; and after a bloody conflict, with heavy losses to both armies, the city of _Agrigentum_ was captured by the Romans. The Romans were novices on the sea, where the Carthaginians were supreme. Successful on the land, the former were beaten in naval encounters. One of the most characteristic proofs of the energy of the Romans is their creation of a fleet, at this epoch, to match that of their sea-faring enemies. Using, it is said, for a model, a Carthaginian vessel wrecked on the shore of Italy, they constructed quinqueremes, vessels with five banks of oars, furnished with bridges to drop on the decks of the hostile ships,--thus giving to a sea-fight a resemblance to a combat on land. At first, as might be expected, the Romans were defeated; but in 260, under the consul _Caius Duilius_, they won their first naval victory at _Mylae_, west of Messana. The Roman Senate decided to invade Africa. A fleet of three hundred and thirty vessels sailed under the command of the consul _M. Atilius Regulus_, which was met by a Carthaginian fleet at _Ecnomus_, on the south coast of Sicily. The Carthaginians were completely vanquished. The Romans landed at _Clupea_, to the east of Carthage, and ravaged the adjacent district. There _Regulus_ remained with half the army, fifteen thousand men. The Carthaginians sued for peace; but when he required them to surrender all their ships of war except one, and to come into a dependent relation to Rome, they spurned the proposal. Re-enforcing themselves with mercenaries from Greece under the command of the Spartan, _Xanthippus_, they overpowered and captured _Regulus_ in a battle at _Tunis_ (255). A Roman fleet, sent to _Clupea_ for the rescue of the troops, on the return voyage lost three-fourths of its ships in a storm. The Carthaginians, under _Hasdrubal_, resumed hostilities in Sicily. He was defeated by the consul _Caecilius Metellus_, at _Panormus_, who included among his captures one hundred elephants (251). The story of the embassy of _Regulus_ to Rome with the Carthaginian offer of peace, of his advising the Senate not to accept it, of his voluntary return according to a promise, and of his cruel death at the hands of his captors, is probably an invention of a later time. The hopes of the Romans, in consequence of their success at _Panormus_, revived; but two years later, under _Appius Claudius_ at _Drepanum_, they were defeated on sea and on land. Once more their naval force was prostrated. Warfare was now carried forward on land, where, in the south of Sicily, the Carthaginian leader, _Hamilcar Barca_, maintained himself against Roman attacks for six years, and sent out privateers to harass the coasts of Italy. Finally, at Rome, there was an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm. Rich men gave liberally, and treasures of the temples were devoted to the building of a new fleet. This fleet, under command of _C. Lutatius Catulus_, gained a decisive victory over the Carthaginian _Hanno_, at the Aegatian Islands, opposite _Lilybaeum_ (241). The Carthaginians were forced to conclude peace, and to make large concessions. They gave up all claim to Italy and to the neighboring small islands. They were to pay an indemnity, equal to four million dollars, in ten years. The western part of Sicily was now constituted a _province_, the _first_ of the Roman provinces. CONQUEST OF CISALPINE GUAL.--The Carthaginians were for some time busy at home in putting down a revolt of mercenary troops, whose wages they refused to pay in full. The Romans snatched the occasion to extort a cession of the island of _Sardinia_ (238), which they subsequently united with _Corsica_ in one province. They entered, about ten years later (229-228), upon an important and successful war against the _Illyrian pirates_, whose depredations on the coasts of the Adriatic and Ionian seas were very daring and destructive. The Greek cities which the pirates held were surrendered. The sway of the Romans in the Adriatic was secured, and their supremacy in _Corcyra_, _Epidamnus_, and other important places. The next contest was a terrific one with the _Cisalpine Gauls_, who were stirred up by the founding of Roman military colonies on the Adriatic, and by other proceedings of Rome. They called in the help of transalpine Gauls, and entered _Etruria_, on their way to Rome, with an army of seventy thousand men. They met the Roman armies near _Telamon_, south of the mouth of the Umbro, but were routed, with a loss of forty thousand men slain, and ten thousand men prisoners (225). The Romans marched northward, crossed the _Po_, and subdued the most powerful of the Gallic tribes, the _Insubrians_ (223). Other victories in the following year reduced the whole of upper Italy, with _Mediolanum_ (Milan) the capital of the _Insubrians_, under Roman rule. Fortresses were founded as usual, and the great _Flaminian_ and _Aemilian_ roads connected that region with the capital. Later, _Cisalpine Gaul_ became a Roman province. CARTHAGINIANS IN SPAIN.--Meantime Carthage endeavored in Southern Spain to make up for its losses. The old tribes, the _Celtiberians_ and _Lusitanians_ in the central and western districts, and the _Cantabrians_ and _Basques_ in the north, brave as they were, were too much divided by tribal feuds to make an effectual resistance. The national party at Carthage, which wished for war, had able leaders in _Hamilcar_ and his three sons. By the military skill of _Hamilcar_, and of _Hasdrubal_ his son-in-law, the Carthaginians built up a flourishing dominion on the south and east coasts. The Romans watched the growth of the Carthaginian power there with discontent, and compelled _Hasdrubal_ to declare in a treaty that the _Ebro_ should be the limit of Carthaginian conquests (226). At the same time Rome made a protective alliance with _Saguntum_, a rich and powerful trading-city on the south of that river. _Hasdrubal_ was murdered in 221; and the son of Hamilcar Barca, _Hannibal_, who was then only twenty-eight years old, was chosen by the army to be their general. He laid hold of a pretext for beginning an attack upon _Saguntum_, which he took after a stout resistance, prolonged for eight months (219). The demand of a Roman embassy at Carthage--that _Hannibal_ should be delivered up--being refused, Rome declared war. When the Carthaginian Council hesitated at the proposal of the Roman embassy, their spokesman, _Quintus Fabius_, said that he carried in his bosom peace or war: they might chose either. They answered, "We take what you give us;" whereupon the Roman opened his toga, saying, "I give you war!" The Carthaginians shouted, "So let it be!" THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.--When the treaty of _Catulus_ was made (241), all patriots at Carthage felt that it was only a truce. They must have seen that Rome would never be satisfied with any thing short of the abject submission of so detested and dangerous a rival. There was a peace party, an oligarchy, at Carthage; and it was their selfishness which ultimately brought ruin upon the state. But the party which saw that the only safety was in aggressive action found a military leader in _Hannibal_,--a leader not surpassed, and perhaps not equaled, by any other general of ancient or modern times. He combined skill with daring, and had such a command over men, that under the heaviest reverses his influence was not broken. If he was cruel, it is doubtful whether he went beyond the practices sanctioned by the international law of the time and by Roman example. When a boy nine years old, at his father's request he had sworn upon the altar never to be the friend of the Roman people. That father he saw fall in battle at his side. The oath he kept, for Rome never had a more unyielding or a more powerful enemy. HANNIBAL IN ITALY.--In the summer of 218, _Hannibal_ crossed the _Ebro_, conquered the peoples between the _Ebro_ and the _Pyrenees_, and, leaving his brother _Hasdrubal_ in Spain, pushed into _Gaul_ with an army of fifty thousand foot, twelve thousand horse, and thirty-seven elephants. He crossed the swift _Rhone_ in the face of the Gauls who disputed the passage, and then made his memorable march over the _Alps_, probably by the way now known as the _Little St. Bernard_ pass. Through ice and snow, climbing over crags and circling abysses, amid perpetual conflicts with the rough mountaineers who rolled stones down on the toiling soldiers, the army made its terrible journey into Northern Italy. Fifteen days were occupied in the passage. Half the troops, with all the draught-animals and beasts of burden, perished on the way. The _Cisalpine Gauls_ welcomed Hannibal as a deliverer. No sooner had the valiant consul, _Cornelius Scipio_, been defeated in a cavalry battle on the _Ticinus_, a northern branch of the _Po_ (218), and, severely wounded, retreated to _Placentia_, and his rash colleague, _Sempronius_, been defeated with great loss in a second battle on the _Trebia_, than the Gauls joined _Hannibal_, and reinforced him with sixty thousand troops inured to war. Hannibal, by marching through the swampy district of the _Arno_, where he himself lost an eye, flanked the defensive position of the Romans. The consul _Flaminius_ was decoyed into a narrow pass; and, in the battle of _Lake Trasumenus_ (217), his army of thirty thousand men was slaughtered or made prisoners. The consul himself was killed. All _Etruria_ was lost. The way seemed open to Rome; but, supported by the Latins and Italians, the Romans did not quail, or lower their mien of stern defiance. They appointed a leading patrician, _Quintus Fabius Maximus_, dictator. _Hannibal_, not being able to surprise and capture the fortress of _Spoletium_, preferred to march towards the sea-coast, and thence south into _Apulia_. His purpose was to open communication with _Carthage_, and to gain over to his support the eastern tribes of Italy. _Fabius, the Delayer (Cunctator)_, as he was called, followed and watched his enemy, inflicting what injuries he could, but avoiding a pitched battle. The Roman populace were impatient of the cautious, but wise and effective, policy of _Fabius_. In the following year (216) the consulship was given to _L. Aemilius Paulus_--who was chosen by the upper class, the _Optimates_--and _C. Terentius Varro_, who was elected by the popular party for the purpose of taking the offensive. _Varro_ precipitated a battle at _Cannae_, in Apulia, where the Romans suffered the most terrible defeat they had ever experienced. At the lowest computation, they lost forty thousand foot and three thousand horse, with the consul _Aemilius Paulus_, and eighty men of senatorial rank. No such calamity since the capture of Rome by the Gauls had ever occurred. The Roman Senate did not lose heart. They limited the time of mourning for the dead to thirty days. They refused to admit to the city the ambassadors of _Hannibal_, who came for the exchange of prisoners. With lofty resolve they ordered a levy of all who could bear arms, including boys and even slaves. They put into their hands weapons from the temples, spoils of former victories. They thanked _Varro_ that he had not despaired of the Republic. Some of the Italian allies went over to Hannibal. But all the Latin cities and all the Roman colonies remained loyal. The allies of Rome did not fall away as did the allies of Athens after the Syracusan disaster. It has been thought, that, if _Hannibal_ had followed up the victory at _Cannae_ by marching at once on the capital, the Roman power might have been overthrown. What might then have been the subsequent course of European history? Even the Roman school-boys, according to Juvenal, discussed the question whether he did not make a mistake in not attacking Rome. But it is quite doubtful whether he could have taken the city, or, even if he had taken it, whether his success would then have been complete. He took the wiser step of getting into his hands _Capua_, the second city in Italy. He may have hoped to seize a Campanian port, where he could disembark reinforcements "which his great victories had wrung from the opposition at home." _Hannibal_ judged it best to go into winter-quarters at _Capua_, where his army was in a measure enervated by pleasure and vice. _Carthage_ made an alliance with _Philip V_. of Macedonia, and with _Hiero_ of Syracuse. But fortune turned in favor of the Romans. At _Nola_, _Hannibal_ was repulsed by _Marcellus_ (215); and, since he could obtain no substantial help from home, he was obliged to act on the defensive. _Marcellus_ crossed into Sicily, and, after a siege of three years, captured _Syracuse_, which had been aided in its defense by the philosopher _Archimedes_. _Capua_, in 211, surrendered to the Romans, and was visited with a fearful chastisement. Hannibal's Italian allies forsook him, and his only reliance was on his brother in Spain. For a long time, the two brothers, _Publius_ and _Cnaeus Scipio_, maintained there the Roman cause successfully; but they were defeated and slain (212). SCIPIO: ZAMA.--_Publius Cornelius Scipio_, son of one and nephew of the other Scipio just named, a young man twenty-five years old, and a popular favorite, took the command, and gained important successes; but he could not keep _Hasdrubal_ from going to his brother's assistance in Italy. The Romans, however, were able to prevent a junction of his force with that of _Hannibal_; and _Hasdrubal_ was vanquished and slain by them in the battle of _Sena Gallica_, near the little river _Metaurus_ (207). _Scipio_ expelled the Carthaginians from Spain, and, having returned to Rome, was made consul (205). His plan was to invade Africa. He landed on the coast, and was joined by _Masinissa_, the king of Numidia, who had been driven from his throne by _Syphax_, the ally of Carthage. The defeat of the Carthaginians, and the danger of Carthage itself, led to the recall of _Hannibal_, who was defeated, in 202, by _Scipio_ in the decisive battle of _Zama_. Carthage made peace, giving up all her Spanish possessions and islands in the Mediterranean, handing over the kingdom of _Syphax_ to _Masinissa_, and agreeing to pay a yearly tribute equal to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for fifty years, to destroy all their ships of war but ten, and to make no war without the consent of the Romans (201). _Scipio Africanus_, as he was termed, came back in triumph to Rome. The complete subjugation of _Upper Italy_ followed (200-191). CHAPTER II. CONQUEST OF MACEDONIA: THE THIRD PUNIC WAR: THE DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH (202-146 B.C.). PHILIP V.: ANTIOCHUS III.--The Romans were now dominant in the West. They were strong on the sea, as on the land. Within fifty years Rome likewise became the dominant power in the East. Philip V. of Macedon had made an alliance with Hannibal, but had furnished him no valuable aid. The Senate maintained that a body of Macedonian mercenaries had fought against the Romans at _Zama_. _Rhodes_ and _Athens_, together with _King Attalus_ of Pergamon, sought for help against _Philip_. The Romans were joined by the _Ætolians_, and afterwards by the _Achaians_. In 197, the consul _T. Quintius Flamininus_ defeated him at the battle of _Cynoscephalæ_ in Thessaly, and imposed upon him such conditions of peace as left him powerless against the interests of Rome. At the Isthmian games, amid great rejoicing, _Flamininus_ declared the Greek states independent. When they found that their freedom was more nominal than real, and involved a virtual subjection to Rome, the _Ætolians_ took up arms, and obtained the support of _Antiochus III_., king of Syria. Another grievance laid at the door of this king was the reception by him of _Hannibal_, a fugitive from Carthage, whose advice, however, as to the conduct of the war, _Antiochus_ had not the wisdom to follow. In 190 he was vanquished by a Roman army at _Magnesia_, under _L. Cornelius Scipio_, with whom was present, as an adviser, _Scipio Africanus_. He was forced to give up all his Asiatic possessions as far as the _Taurus_ mountains. The territory thus obtained, the Romans divided among their allies, _Pergamon_ and _Rhodes_. About seven years later (183), _Hannibal_, who had taken refuge at the court of _Prusias_, king of Bithynia, finding that he was to be betrayed, took poison and died. The ingratitude of his country, or of the ruling party in it, did not move him to relax his exertions against Rome. He continued until his death to be her most formidable antagonist, exerting in exile an effective influence in the East to create combinations against her. PERSEUS.--_Philip V_. laid a plan to avenge himself on the Romans, and regain his lost Macedonian territory. _Perseus_, his son, followed in the same path, having slain his brother _Demetrius_, who was a friend of Rome. The war broke out in 171. For several campaigns the management of the Roman generals was ill-judged; but at last _L. Æmilius Paulus_, son of the consul who fell at _Cannæ_, routed the Macedonians at the battle of _Pydna_. Immense spoils were brought to Rome by the conqueror. _Perseus_ himself, who had sat on the throne of Alexander, adorned the consul's triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. The cantons of Greece, where there was nothing but continual strife and endless confusion, were subjected to Roman influence. One thousand Achaians of distinction, among them the historian _Polybius_, were carried to Italy, and kept under surveillance for many years. The imperious spirit of Rome, and the deference accorded to her, is illustrated in the interview of _C. Popilius Lænas_, who delivered to _Antiochus IV_. of Syria a letter of the Senate, directing him to retire from before Alexandria. When that monarch replied that he would confer with his counselors on the matter, the haughty Roman drew a circle round him on the ground, and bade him decide before he should cross that line. _Antiochus_ said that he would do as the Senate ordered. THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.--The treaty with Carthage had bound that city hand and foot. Against the encroachments of _Masinissa_, the Carthaginians could do nothing; but at length they were driven to take up arms to repel them. This act the Romans pronounced a breach of the treaty (149). That stern old Roman, who in his youth had served against Hannibal, _M. Porcius Cato_, had been unceasing in his exhortation to destroy Carthage. He was in the habit of ending his speeches with the saying, "But I am of opinion that Carthage should be destroyed." The Roman armies landed at _Utica_. Their hard demands, which included the surrender of war-ships and weapons, were complied with. But when the Carthaginians were required to abandon their city, and to make a new settlement ten miles distant, they rose in a fury of patriotic wrath. The women cut off their hair to make bowstrings. Day and night the people worked, in forging weapons and in building a new fleet in the inner harbor. The Romans were repulsed; but _P. Scipio Æmilianus_, the adopted son of the first Scipio Africanus, shut in the city by land and by sea, and, in 146, captured and destroyed it. Its defenders fought from street to street, and from house to house. Only a tenth part of the inhabitants were left alive. These were sold into slavery. Carthage was set on fire, and almost entirely consumed. The fire burned for seventeen days. The remains of the Carthaginian wall, when excavated in recent times, "were found to be covered with a layer of ashes from four to five feet deep, filled with half-charred pieces of wood, fragments of iron, and projectiles." _Scipio_ would have preserved the city, but the Senate was inexorable. With the historian Polybius at his side, the Roman commander, as he looked down on the horrors of the conflagration, sorrowfully repeated the lines of Homer,-- "The day shall come when sacred Troy shall be leveled with the plain, And Priam and the people of that good warrior slain." "Assyria," he is said to have exclaimed, "had fallen, and Persia and Macedon. Carthage was burning: Rome's day might come next." Carthage was converted into a Roman province under the name of _Africa_. DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH.--The atrocious crime of the destruction of Carthage was more than matched by the contemporaneous destruction of _Corinth_. Another rising in Macedonia resulted, in 146, in the conversion of that ancient kingdom into a Roman province. The return to Greece of three hundred Achaian exiles who had been detained in Italy for sixteen years, strengthened the anti-Roman party in Greece, and helped to bring on war with the Achaian league. In 146, after the battle of _Leucopetra_, Corinth was occupied by the consul _L. Mummius_. The men were put to the sword; the women and children were sold at auction into slavery; all treasures, all pictures, and other works of art, were carried off to Rome, and the city was consigned to the flames. The other Greek cities were mildly treated, but placed under the governor of Macedonia, and obliged to pay tribute to Rome. At a later date Greece became a Roman province under the name of _Achaia_. THE PROVINCES.--At this epoch, there were eight provinces,--_Sicily_ (241), _Sardinia_ (238) and _Corsica_, two provinces in _Spain_ (205), _Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum_ (168), _Africa_ (146), _Macedonia_ (146), and _Achaia_. The first four were governed by _Prætors_. Later, however, the judicial functions of the praetors kept them in Rome. At the end of the year, the prætor, on laying down his office at home, went as _proprætor_ to rule a province. But where there was war or other grave disturbances, the province was assigned to a _consul_ in office, or to a _proconsul_, who was either the consul of the preceding year, or an ex-consul, or an ex-prætor who was appointed proconsul. The provinces were generally organized by the conquering general and a senatorial commission. Some cities retained their municipal government. These were the "free cities." The taxes were farmed out to collectors called _publicans_, who were commonly of the equestrian order. The last military dictator was appointed in 216. In times of great danger, dictatorial power was given to a consul. LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY.--The intercourse of the Romans with the Greeks opened to the former a new world of art, literature, and philosophy, and a knowledge of other habits and modes of life. There were those who regarded the Greek authors and artists with sympathy, and showed an intelligent enthusiasm for the products of Greek genius. Under the patronage of the _Scipios_, Roman poets wrote in imitation of Greek models. Such were _Plautus_ (who died in 184), and the less original, but more refined, _Terence_ (185-159), who had been the slave of a senator. _Ennius_ (239-169), a Calabrian Greek, wrote epics, and also tragedies and comedies. Him the later Romans regarded as the father of their literature. The beginnings of historical writing--which go beyond mere chronicles and family histories--appear, as in the lost work on Roman history by _M. Portias Cato_ (Cato the Censor, 234-149). The great historian of this period, however, was the Greek _Polybius_. The Greek philosophy was introduced, in spite of the vigorous opposition of such austere conservatives as Cato. _Panaetius_ (185-112), the Stoic from _Rhodes_, had a cordial reception at Rome. The Stoic teaching was adapted to the Roman mind. The Platonic philosophy was brought in by _Carneades_. This was frequently more acceptable to orators and statesmen. Along with the _Stoic_, the _Epicurean_ school found adherents. Cato--who, although a historian and an orator, was, in theory and practice, a rigid man, with the simple ways of the old time--procured the banishment of_ Carneades_, together with _Critolaus_ the Peripatetic, and the Stoic _Diogenes_. The schools of oratory he caused to be shut up. He did what he could to prevent the introduction of the healing art, as it was practiced by the Greeks. He preferred the old-fashioned domestic remedies. THE STATE OF MORALS.--If the opposition of the Conservatives to Greek letters and philosophy was unreasonable, as it certainly proved futile, there was abundant ground for alarm and regret at the changes that were going on in morals and in ways of living. The conquest of Greece and of the East brought an amazing increase of wealth. Rome plundered the countries which she conquered. The _optimates_, the leading families, who held the chief offices in the state and in the army, grew very rich from the booty which they gained. They left their small dwellings for stately palaces, which they decorated with works of art, gained by the pillage of nations. They built villas in the country, with extensive grounds and beautiful gardens. Even women, released from the former strict subordination of the wife to her husband, indulged lavishly in finery, and plunged into gaieties inconsistent with the household virtues. The _optimates_, in order to enrich themselves further, often resorted to extortion of various sorts. In order to curry favor with the people, and thereby to get their votes, they stooped to flattery, and to demagogical arts which the earlier Romans would have despised. They provided games, at great expense, for the entertainment of the populace. In the room of the invigorating and of the intellectual contests, which had been in vogue among the Greeks, the Romans acquired an increasing relish for bloody gladiatorial fights of men with wild beasts, and of men against one another. Slaves multiplied to an enormous extent: "as cheap as a Sardinian" was a proverb. The race of plain farmers dwindled away. The trade in slaves became a flourishing branch of business. Field-hands toiled in fetters, and were often branded to prevent escape. If slaves ran away, and were caught, they might be crucified. If a householder were killed by a slave, all the slaves in his house might be put to death. As at Athens, the testimony of slaves was given under torture. Hatred to the master on the part of the slave was a thing of course. "As many enemies as slaves," was a common saying. NUMANTIAN WAR.--The intolerable oppression of the provinces occasionally provoked resistance. It was in _Spain_ that the Romans found it most difficult to quell the spirit of freedom. The _Lusitanians_ in the territory now called Portugal, under a gallant chieftain, _Viriathus_, maintained for nine years a war in which they were mostly successful, and were finally worsted only in consequence of the perfidious assassination of their leader (149-140). The _Celtiberians_, whose principal city, _Numantia_, was on the upper _Douro_, kept up their resistance with equal valor for ten years (143-133). On one occasion a Roman army of twenty thousand men was saved from destruction by engagements which the Senate, as after the surrender at the Caudine Forks, repudiated. In 133, after a siege of eighteen months, Numantia was taken by _Scipio Africanus Æmilianus_. It was hunger that compelled the surrender; and the noblest inhabitants set fire to the town, and slew themselves, to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. PERGAMON.--More subservience the Romans found in the East. In the same year that the desperate resistance of the _Numantians_ was overcome, _Attalus III_., king of _Pergamon_, an ally of Rome, whose sovereignty extended over the greater part of _Asia Minor_, left his kingdom and all his treasures, by will, to the Roman people. There was a feeble struggle on the part of the expectant heir, but the Romans formed the larger part of the kingdom into a province. _Phrygia Major_ they detached, and gave to _Mithridates IV_., king of _Pontus_, who had helped them in this last brief contest. PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF REVOLUTION AND OF THE CIVIL WARS. (_146-31 B.C_.) CHAPTER I. THE GRACCHI: THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR: MARIUS AND SULLA (146-78 B.C.). CONDITION OF ROME.--We come now to an era of internal strife. The Romans were to turn their arms against one another: Yet it is remarkable that the march of foreign conquest still went on. It was by conquests abroad that the foremost leaders in the civil wars rose to the position which enabled them to get control in the government at home. The power of the _Senate_ had been more and more exalted. Foreign affairs were mainly at its disposal. The increase in the number of voters in the _comitia_, and their motley character, made it more easy for the aristocracy to manage them. Elections were carried by the influence of largesses and by the exhibition of games. Practically the chief officers were limited to a clique, composed of rich families of both patrician and plebeian origin, which was diminishing in number, while the numbers of the lower class were rapidly growing larger. The gulf between the poor and the rich was constantly widening. The last Italian colony was sent out in 177 B.C., and the lands of Italy were all taken up. Slaves furnished labor at the cost of their bare subsistence. It was hard for a poor man to gain a living. Had the _Licinian Laws_ (p. 137) been carried out, the situation would have been different. The public lands were occupied by the members of some forty or fifty aristocratic families, and by a certain number of wealthy Italians. A great proletariate--a needy and disaffected lower class--was growing up, which boded no good to the state. TIBERIUS GRACCHUS.--This condition of things moved _Tiberius Gracchus_, the son of _Cornelia_, who was the daughter of the great _Scipio Africanus_, to bring forward his _Agrarian Laws_. The effect of them would have been to limit the amount of the public domain which any one man could hold, and to divide portions of it among poor citizens. In spite of the bitter opposition of the nobility, these laws were passed (133). But _Gracchus_ had been obliged to persuade the people to turn a tribune, who resisted their passage, out of office, which was an unconstitutional act. In order to carry out the laws, he would have to be re-elected tribune. But the _optimates_, led by the consul _Scipio Nasica_, had been still more infuriated by other proposals of _Gracchus_. They raised a mob, and slew him, with three hundred of his followers. This gave the democratic leaders a temporary advantage; but violent measures on their own side turned the current again the other way, and proceedings under the laws were quashed. CAIUS GRACCHUS.--The laws of _Caius Gracchus_, the brother of Tiberius, were of a more sweeping character. He caused measures to be passed, and colonies to be sent out, by decrees of the people, without any action of the Senate. He renewed the agrarian law. He caused a law to be passed for selling corn for less than the cost, to all citizens who should apply for it. He also caused it to be ordained, that juries should be taken from the knights, the _equites_, instead of the Senate. These were composed of rich men. The tendency of the law would be to make the equestrian order distinct, and thus to divide the aristocracy. The proposal (122), which was not passed, to extend the franchise to the Latins, and perhaps to the Italians, cost him his popularity, although the measure was just. The Senate gave its support to a rival tribune, _M. Livius Drusus_, who outbid _Gracchus_ in the contest for popular favor. In 121 _Gracchus_ was not made tribune. In the disorder that followed, he, with several hundred of his followers, was killed by the _optimates_. Before long most of his enactments were reversed. The law for the cheap sale of corn, the most unwise of his measures, continued. THE JUGURTHINE WAR.--An interval of tranquility followed. But the corruption of the ruling class was illustrated in connection with the Jugurthine war. _Jugurtha_, the adopted son of the king of _Numidia_, the ally of Rome, wishing the whole kingdom for himself, killed one of the sons of the late king, and made war upon the other, who applied to the Romans for help. The commission sent out by the Senate was bribed by _Jugurtha_. Not until he took the city of _Cirta_, and put to death the remaining brother, with all his army, was he summoned to Rome. There, too, his money availed to secure him impunity, although he caused a Numidian prince to be murdered in Rome itself. When the Romans finally entered on the war with _Jugurtha_, he bribed the generals, so that little was effected. The indignation of the people was raised to such a pitch that they would not leave the direction of the war in the hands of _Quintus Metellus_, whom the Senate had sent out, and who defeated _Jugurtha_ (108), but insisted on giving the chief command to one of his subordinate officers, _Caius Marius_ (107), the son of a peasant, wild and rough in his manners, but of extraordinary talents as a soldier. He brought the war to an end. _Jugurtha_ was delivered up by the prince with whom he had taken refuge to _L. Cornelius Sulla_, one of the generals under _Marius_, and in 105, with his two sons, marched in chains before the triumphal car of _Marius_ through the streets of Rome. _Marius_ was now the leader of the popular party, and the most influential man in Rome. THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES.--The power of _Marius_ was augmented by his victories over the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_. These were hordes of barbarians who appeared in the Alpine regions, the _Cimbri_ being either _Celts_, or, like the _Teutones_, _Germans_. The _Cimbri_ crossed the Alps in 113, and defeated a Roman consul. They turned westward towards the Rhine, traversed Gaul in different directions, defeating through a series of years the Roman armies that were sent against them. These defeats the democratic leaders ascribed, not without reason, to the corrupt management of the aristocratic party. In 103 the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_ arranged for a combined attack on Italy. _Marius_ was made consul; and in order to meet this threatened invasion, which justly excited the greatest anxiety, he was chosen to this office five times in succession (104-100). Having repulsed the attack of the barbarians on his camp, he defeated them in two great battles, the first at _Aquce Sextice_ (Aix in Provence) in 102, and the second at _Vercellce_, in Upper Italy, in 101. These successes, which really saved Rome, made _Marius_ for the time the idol of the popular party. THE ARMY.--At about this time a great change took place in the constitution of the army. The occupation of a soldier had become a trade. Besides the levy of citizens, there was established a recruiting system, which drew into the ranks the idle and lazy, and a system of re-inforcements, by which cavalry and light-armed troops were taken from subject and vassal states. Thus there arose a military class, distinct, as it had not been of old, from the civil orders, and ready to act separately when its own interest or the ambition of favorite leaders might prompt. SATURNINUS.--_Marius_ lacked the judgment and the firmness required by a statesman, especially in troublous times. When _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_ brought forward a series of measures of a radical character in behalf of the democratic cause, and the consul _Metellus_, who opposed them, was obliged to go into voluntary exile, _Marius_, growing ashamed of the factious and violent proceedings of the popular party, was partially won over to the support of the Senate. When _C. Memmius_, candidate for consul, was killed with bludgeons by the mob of _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_, and there was fighting in the forum and the streets, he helped to put down these reckless innovators (99). But his want of hearty cooperation with either party made him hated by both. _Metellus_ was recalled from banishment. _Marius_ went to Asia, and visited the court of _Mithridates._ THE MURDER OF DRUSUS.--Nearly ten years of comparative quiet ensued. The long continued complaints of the Italians found at last a voice in the measures of _M. Livius Drusus,_ a tribune, who, in 91, proposed that they should have the right of citizenship. Two other propositions, one referring to the relations of the _Equites_ and the _Senate,_ and the other for a new division of lands, had been accepted by the people, but were by the Senate declared null. Before _Drusus_ could bring forward the law respecting Italian citizenship, he was assassinated. Neither Senate nor people was favorable to this righteous measure. THE ITALIAN OR SOCIAL WAR (90-88 B.C.).--The murder of _Drusus_ was the signal for an insurrection of the _Italian_ communities. They organized for themselves a federal republic. The peril occasioned by this great revolt reconciled for the moment the contending parties at Rome. In the North, where _Marius_ fought, the Romans were generally successful: in the South, the allies were at first superior; but in 89, in spite of _Sulla's_ bold forays, they were worsted. But it was by policy, more than by arms, that the Romans subdued this dangerous revolt. They promised full citizenship to those who had not taken part in the war, and to those who would at once cease to take part in it (90). Finally, when it was plain that Rome was too strong to be overcome, the conflict was ended by granting to the allies all that they had ever claimed (89). Rome had now made ALL ITALY (south of _Cisalpine Gaul_), except the _Samnites_ and _Lucanians,_ EQUAL WITH HERSELF. But Italy had been ravaged by desolating war: the number of small proprietors was more than ever diminished, and the army and the generals were becoming the predominant force in the affairs of the state. WAR WITH MITHRIDATES.--_Mithridates,_ king of Pontus, in the north-east of Asia Minor, was as ardent an enemy of the Romans as Hannibal had been. With the help of his son-in-law _Tigranes,_ king of Armenia, he had subdued the neighboring kings in alliance with Rome. The Asiatic states, who were ruled by the Romans, were impatient of the oppression under which they groaned. When checked by the Romans, _Mithridates_ had paused for a while, and then had resumed again his enterprise of conquest. In 88 the Grecian cities of Asia joined him; and, in obedience to his brutal order, all the Italians within their walls, not lelss than eighty thousand in number, but possibly almost double that number, were put to death in one day. The whole dominion of the Romans in the East was in jeopardy. MARIUS AND SULLA.--_Sulla_ was elected consul in 88, and was on the point of departing for Asia. He was a soldier of marked talents, a representative of the _aristocratic_ party, and was more cool and consistent in his public conduct than _Marius_. _Marius_ desired the command against _Mithridates_ for himself. _P. Sulpicius_, one of his adherents, brought forward a revolutionary law for incorporating the Italians and freedmen among the thirty-five tribes. The populace, under the guidance of the leaders of the Marian faction, voted to take away the command from _Sulla_, and to give it to _Marius_. _Sulla_ refused to submit, and marched his army to Rome. It was impossible to resist him. _Sulpicius_ was killed in his flight. _Marius_ escaped from Italy, and, intending to go to Africa, was landed at _Minturnae_. To escape pursuit, he had to stand up to the chin in a marsh. He was put in prison, and a Gaulish slave was sent to kill him. But when he saw the flashing eyes of the old general, and heard him cry, "Fellow, darest thou kill _Caius Marius_?" he dropped his sword, and ran. _Marius_ crossed to Africa. Messengers who were sent to warn him to go away, found him sitting among the ruins of Carthage. THE MARIANS IN ROME.--_Sulla_ restored the authority of the Senate. During _Sulla's_ absence, _Cinna_, the consul of the popular party, sought to revive the laws of _Sulpicius_ by violent means (87). Driven out of the city, he came back with an army which he had gathered in _Campania_, and with old Marius, who had returned from Africa. He now took vengeance on the leaders of the _Optimates_. For five days the gates were closed, and every noble who was specially obnoxious, and had not escaped, was killed by _Marius_, who marched through the streets at the head of a body of soldiers. In 86 _Marius_ and _Cinna_ were made consuls. _Sulla_ was declared to be deposed. _Marius_, who was now more than seventy years old, died (86). The fever of revenge, and the apprehension of what might follow on _Sulla's_ return, drove sleep from his eyelids. A brave soldier, he was incompetent to play the part of a statesman. He went to his grave with the curse of all parties resting upon him. RETURN OF SULLA.--_Sulla_ refused to do any thing against his adversaries at home, or for the help of the fugitive nobles who appealed to him, until the cause of the country was secure abroad. He captured _Athens_ in 86, defeated _Archelaus_, the general of _Mithridates_, in a great battle at _Chaeronea_; and, by this and subsequent victories, he forced _Mithridates_ to conclude peace, who agreed to evacuate the Roman province of Asia, to restore all his conquests, surrender eighty ships of war, and pay three thousand talents (84). _Sulla's_ hands were now free. In 83 he landed at _Brundisium_. He was joined by _Cneius Pompeius_, then twenty-three years old, with a troop of volunteers. _Sulla_ did not wish to fight the Italians. He issued a proclamation, therefore, giving them the assurance that their rights would not be impaired. This pledge had the desired effect. The army of the _Consuls_ largely outnumbered his own. _Sulla_ lingered in South Italy to make good his position there. The _Samnites_ joined the _Marians_, and moved upon Rome with the intent to destroy it. They were defeated before they could enter the city. The _Marians_ in Spain were defeated afterwards, as were the same party in _Sicily_ and _Africa_ by _Pompeius_. CRUELTY OF SULLA.--The cruelty of Sulla, after his victory, was more direful than Rome had ever witnessed. It appeared to spring from no heat of passion, but was cold and shameless. After a few days, there was a massacre of four thousand prisoners in the _Circus_. Their shrieks and groans were heard in the neighboring Temple of _Bellona_, where Sulla was in consultation with the Senate. Many thousands--not far from three thousand in Rome alone--were proscribed and murdered, and the property of all on these lists of the condemned was confiscated. THE LAWS OF SULLA.--In his character as _Dictator_, _Sulla_ remade the constitution, striking out the popular elements to a great extent, and concentrating authority in the _Senate_. The _Tribunes_ were stripped of most of their power. The _Senate_ alone could propose laws. In the Senate, the places in the juries were given back (p. 154). Besides these and other like changes, the right of suffrage was bestowed on ten thousand emancipated slaves; while _Italians_ and others, who had been on the Marian side, were deprived of it. In the year 80 B.C., _Sulla_ caused himself to be elected _Consul_. The next year he retired from office to his country estate, and gave himself up to amusements and sensual pleasure. A part of his time--for he was not without a taste for literature--he devoted to the writing of his memoirs, which, however, have not come down to us. He died in 78. CHAPTER II. POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRASSUS (78-53 B.C.). WAR WITH SERTORIUS.--Not many years after _Sulla's _death, his reforms were annulled. This was largely through the agency of _Cneius Pompeius_, who had supported _Sulla_, but was not a uniform or consistent adherent of the aristocratic party. He did not belong to an old family, but had so distinguished himself that Sulla gave him a triumph. Later he rose to still higher distinction by his conduct of the war against _Sertorius_ in Spain, a brave and able man of the Marian party, who was supported there for a long time by a union of Spaniards and Romans. Not until jealousy arose among his officers, and _Sertorius_ was assassinated, was the formidable rebellion put down (72). THE GLADIATORIAL WAR.--_Pompeius_ had the opportunity still further to distinguish himself on his way back from Spain. A gladiator, _Spartacus_, started a revolt among his companions. He called about him slaves and outlaws until with an army of one hundred thousand men he defeated the Roman generals, and threatened Rome itself. For two years they ravaged Italy at their will. They were vanquished by _Marcus Crassus_ in 71, in two battles, in the last of which _Spartacus fell_. The remnant of them, a body of five thousand men, who had nearly reached the Alps, were annihilated by _Pompeius_. POMPEIUS: CRASSUS: CICERO.--_Crassus_ was a man of great wealth and of much shrewdness. _Pompeius_ was bland and dignified in his ways, a valiant, though sometimes over-cautious, general. These two men, in 70 B.C., became consuls. They had resolved to throw themselves for support on the middle class at Rome. _Pompeius_, sustained by his colleague, secured the abrogation of some of the essential changes made by _Sulla_. The _Tribunes_ received back their powers, and the independence of the _Assembly of the Tribes_ was restored. The absolute power of the Senate over the law-courts was taken away. These measures were carried in spite of the resistance of that body. Pompeius was aided by the great advocate, _Marcus Tullius Cicero_. He was born at _Arpinum_ in 106 B.C., of an equestrian family. He had been a diligent student of law and politics, and also of the Greek philosophy, and aspired to distinction in civil life. He studied rhetoric under _Molo_, first at Rome and then at _Rhodes_, during a period of absence from Italy, which continued about two years. On his return (in 77 B.C.), he resumed legal practice. _Cicero_ was a man of extraordinary and various talents, and a patriot, sincerely attached to the republican constitution. He was humane and sensitive, and much more a man of peace than his eminent contemporaries. His foibles, the chief of which was the love of praise, were on the surface; and, if he lacked some of the robust qualities of the great Roman leaders of that day, he was likewise free from some of their sins. The captivating oratory of Cicero found a field for its exercise in the impeachment of _Verres_, whose rapacity, as Roman governor of Sicily, had fairly desolated that wealthy province. _Cicero_ showed such vigor in the prosecution that _Verres_ was driven into exile. This event weakened the senatorial oligarchy, and helped _Pompeius_ in his contest with it. WAR WITH THE PIRATES.--In 69 B.C., _Pompeius_ retired from office; but, two years later, he assumed command in the war against the pirates. These had taken possession of creeks and valleys in Western _Cilicia_ and _Pamphylia_, and had numerous fleets. Not confining their depredations to the sea, they plundered the coasts of Italy, and stopped the grain-ships on which Rome depended for food. _Pompeius_ undertook to exterminate this piratical community. By the _Gabinian Law_, he was clothed with more power than had ever been committed to an individual. He was to have absolute command over the Mediterranean and its coasts for fifty miles inland. He used this unlimited authority for war purposes alone, and, in three months, completely accomplished the work assigned him. He captured three thousand vessels, and put to death ten thousand men. Twenty thousand captives he settled in the interior of _Cilicia_. POMPEIUS IN THE EAST.--The success of Pompeius was the prelude to a wider extension of his power and his popularity. After the return of _Sulla_ from the East, another _Mithridatic War_ (83-81), the second in the series, had ended in the same terms of peace that had been agreed upon before (p. 157). In 74 the contest began anew against _Mithridates_, and _Tigranes_ of Armenia, his son-in-law. For a number of years _Lucullus_, the Roman commander, was successful; but finally _Mithridates_ regained what he had lost, and kept up his aggressive course. In 66 B.C., on a motion that was supported by _Cicero_, but opposed by the aristocratic party in the Senate, _Pompeius_ was made commander in the East for an indefinite term. So extensive powers had never before been committed to a Roman. He drove _Mithridates_ out of Pontus into Armenia. _Tigranes_ laid his crown at the feet of the Roman general, and was permitted to retain _Armenia_. _Mithridates_ fled beyond the Caucasus, and, in 63 B.C., committed suicide. _Pompeius_ overthrew the Syrian kingdom of the _Seleucidae_. He entered _Judaea_, captured Jerusalem from _Aristobulus_ the reigning prince, and placed his brother _Hyrcanus_ on the throne, who became tributary to Rome. _Pompeius_ with his officers entered the sanctuary of the temple, and was surprised to find there neither image nor statue. He established in the Roman territories in Asia the two provinces, _Pontus_ and _Syria_, and re-organized the province of _Cilicia_. Several kingdoms he allowed to remain under Roman protection. After this unexampled exercise of power and responsibility as the disposer of kingdoms, he slowly returned to Italy, dismissed his army at _Brundisium_, and entered the capital as a private citizen, where, in 61 B.C., he enjoyed a magnificent triumph that lasted for two days. THE ROMAN TRIUMPH.--The most coveted reward of a victorious general was a triumph. It was granted by a vote of the Senate and according to certain rules, some of which, however, were often relaxed. The general must have held the office of dictator, consul, or praetor; at least five thousand of the enemy must have been slain in a single battle; the war must have been against public foes, etc. The general, with his army, remained without the city until the triumph had been decreed by the Senate, which also assembled without the walls to deliberate on the question. The pageant itself, in later times, was of the most splendid character. It consisted of a procession which entered the "Triumphal Gate," and passed through the _Via Sacra_, up the Capitoline Hill to the Temple of Jupiter, where sacrifices were offered. In front were the Senate, headed by the magistrates. Then came a body of trumpeters, who immediately preceded the long trains of carriages and frames which displayed the spoils of conquest, including statues, pictures, gorgeous apparel, gold and silver, and whatever else had been borne away from the conquered people. Pictures of the country traversed or conquered, and models of cities and forts, were exhibited. Behind the spoils came flute-players, and these were followed by elephants and other strange animals. Next were the arms and insignia of the hostile leaders; and after them marched the leaders themselves and their kindred, and all the captives of less rank, in fetters. The crowns and other tributes voluntarily given to the general by Roman allies next appeared, and then the central figure of the procession, the _imperator_ himself, standing in a chariot drawn by four horses, clad in a robe embroidered with gold, and a flowered tunic, in his right hand a bough of laurel and in his left a scepter, with a wreath of laurel on his brow, and a slave standing behind, and holding a crown over his head. Behind him in the procession were his family, then the mounted _equites_ and the whole body of the infantry, their spears adorned with laurels, making the air ring with their shouts and songs. Meantime the temples were open, and incense was burned to the gods; buildings were decorated with festal garlands; the population, in holiday dress, thronged the steps of the public buildings and stages erected to command a view, and in every place where a sight of the pageant could be obtained. As the procession climbed the Capitoline Hill, some of the captives of rank were taken into the adjoining _Mamertine_ prison, and barbarously put to death. In the lower chamber of that ancient dungeon, which the traveler still visits, _Jugurtha_ and many other conquered enemies perished. After the sacrifices had been offered, the _imperator_ sat down to a public feast with his friends in the temple, and was then escorted home by a crowd of citizens. The _ovation_ was a lesser triumph. The general entered the city on foot, and the ceremonies were of a much inferior cast. CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE.--Meanwhile at Rome, the state had been endangered by the combination of democrats and anarchists in the conspiracy of _Catiline_. The well-contrived plot of this audacious and profligate man was detected and crushed by the vigilance and energy of the consul _Cicero_, whose four speeches on the subject, two to the Senate and two to the people, are among the most celebrated of all his orations. _Catiline_ was forced to fly from Rome; and several of his prominent accomplices were put to death by the advice of _Cato_ (the younger), the leader of the Senatorial party, and by the vote of the Senate. This was done without asking for the verdict of the people, and for this reason was not warranted by the law; but it was declared to be needful for the salvation of the state. The next year _Catiline_ was killed in battle, and his force dispersed by the army of the Senate. A turn of party feeling afterwards exiled _Cicero_ for departing from the law in the execution of the conspirators. JULIUS CAESAR.--Another person strong enough to be the rival of _Pompeius_ was now on the stage of action. This was _Caius Julius Caesar_, who proved himself to be, on the whole, the foremost man of the ancient Roman world. Caesar's talents were versatile, but in nothing was he weak or superficial. He was great as a general, a statesman, an orator, and an author. With as much power of personal command over men as _Hannibal_ had possessed, he was likewise an agreeable companion of men of letters and in general society. Every thing he did he appeared to do with ease. By his family connections he was naturally designated as the leader of the popular, Marian party. He was the nephew of _Marius_ and the son-in-law of _Cinna_. _Sulla_ had spared his life, although he had courageously refused to obey the dictator's command to put away his wife; but he had been obliged to quit Rome. At the funeral of _Julia_, the widow of _Marius_, he had been bold enough to exhibit the bust of that hero,--an act that involved risk, but pleased the multitude. He was suspected of being privy to _Catiline's_ plot, and in the Senate spoke against the execution of his confederates. In 65 he was elected _Aedile_, but his profuse expenditures in providing games plunged him heavily in debt; so that it was only by advances made to him by _Crassus_ that he was able, after being praetor, to go to _Spain_ (in 61), where, as propraetor, he first acquired military distinction. Prior to his sojourn in Spain, by his bold political conduct, in opposition to the Senate, and on the democratic side, he had made himself a favorite of the people. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.--Pompeius was distrusted and feared by the Senate; but, on seeing that he took no measures to seize on power at Rome, they proceeded to thwart his wishes, and denied the expected allotments of land to his troops. The circumstances led to the formation of the first _Triumvirate_, which was an informal alliance between _Pompeius_, _Caesar_, and _Crassus_, against the Senatorial oligarchy, and for the protection and furtherance of their own interests. _Caesar_ became consul in 59 B.C. He gave his daughter _Julia_ in marriage to _Pompeius_. Gaul, both Cisalpine, and Transalpine (_Gallia Narbonensis_), was given to _Caesar_ to govern for five years. _Cato_ was sent off to take possession of the kingdom of _Cyprus_. _Cicero_, who was midway between the two parties, was exiled on motion of the radical tribune, _Clodius_. But the independent and violent proceedings of this demagogue led _Pompeius_ to co-operate more with the Senate. _Cicero_ was recalled (57 B.C.). A jealousy, fomented by the Senate, sprang up between _Pompeius_ and _Crassus_. By _Caesar's_ efforts, a better understanding was brought about between the triumvirs, and it was agreed that his own proconsulship should be prolonged for a second term of five years. _Pompeius_ received the _Spains_, and _Crassus_, who was avaricious, was made proconsul of _Syria_, and commander of the armies in the Oriental provinces. In an expedition against the _Parthians_ in 53, he perished. CAESAR IN GAUL.--The campaigns of _Caesar_ in Gaul covered a period of eight years. An admirable narrative of them is presented by himself in his _Commentaries_. THE GAULS.--The Gauls were _Celts_. The Celts were spread over the most of Gaul, over Britain and the north of Italy. In _Gaul_, there were three general divisions of people, each subdivided into tribes. These were the _Belgae_, the _Galli_, and the _Aquitani_, the last of whom, however, were not Celts, but, like the _Iberians_ in Spain, belonged to a _pre-Celtic_ race. The _Helvetii_ and _Vindelici_ were in Switzerland. The Celts of _Gaul_ had attained to a considerable degree of civilization. Their gods were the various objects of nature personified. Their divinities are described by Caesar as corresponding in their functions to the gods of Rome. Their priests were the _Druids_, a close corporation, but not hereditary. They not only conducted worship: they were the lawgivers, judges, and physicians of the people. They possessed a mysterious doctrine, which they taught to the initiated. They held a great yearly assembly for the trial of causes. The _Bards_ stood in connection with the Druidical order. In worship, human sacrifices were offered in large numbers, the victims being prisoners, slaves, criminals, etc. There were temples, but thick groves were the favorite seats of worship. _Caesar_ says that the Gauls were strongly addicted to religious observances. In their character they are described as brave and impetuous in an onset, but as lacking persistency. The Celts in _Britain_ were less civilized than their kinsfolk across the channel. But in their customs and religious beliefs and usages, they were similar to them. They probably came over from Gaul. CONQUEST OF GAUL.--The first victory of Caesar was in conflict with the Helvetii, who had invaded Gaul, and whom he drove back to their homes in the Alps. The Gallic tribes applied to him for help against the _Germans_, who had been led over the Rhine by _Ariovistus_, chief of the _Suevi_. Him _Caesar_ forced to return to the other side of the river. The Gallic tribes, fearing the power of Caesar, stirred up the _Belgae_, the most warlike of all the Gauls. These Csesar subdued, and also, with less difficulty, conquered the other nations of Gaul. _Twice_, in conflict with the Germans, he crossed the Rhine near _Bonn_ and _Andernach_ (55 and 53 B.C.). _Twice_, also (55 and 54 B.C.), he landed in _Britain_. On the second expedition he crossed the _Thames_. In 52 there was a general insurrection of the Gauls under _Vercingetorix_, a brave chieftain, to conquer whom required all of Caesar's strength and skill. The result of eight years of hard and successful warfare was the subjugation of all Gaul from the Rhine to the Pyrenees. The _Celts_ were subdued, and steps taken which resulted in their civilization. A barrier was placed in the way of the advance of the _Germans_, which availed for this end during several centuries. By his successes in Gaul, Csesar acquired a fame as a general, which partly eclipsed the glory previously gained by _Pompeius_ in the East. He became, also, the leader of veteran legions who were devoted to his interests. CHAPTER III. POMPEIUS AND CAESAR: THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. THE CIVIL WAR.--The rupture between _Pompeius_ and _Caesar_ brought on another civil war, and subverted the Roman republic. They were virtually regents. The triumvirs had arranged with one another for the partition of power. The death of _Crassus_ took away a link of connection which had united the two survivors. The death of _Julia_, the beautiful daughter of _Caesar_, in 54 B.C., had previously dissolved another tie. _Pompeius_ contrived to remain in Rome, and to govern Spain by legates. Each of the two rivals had his active and valiant partisans in the city. The spoils of Gaul were sent to be expended in the erection of costly buildings, and in providing entertainments for the populace. To _Pompey_, in turn, Rome owed the construction of the first stone theater, which was dedicated with unprecedented show and splendor. Bloody conflicts between armed bands of adherents of the two leaders were of daily occurrence. _Clodius_, an adherent of Caesar and a reckless partisan, was slain by _Milo_, in a conflict on the Appian Way. The Senate and the republicans, of whom _Cato_ was the chief, in order to curb the populace, and out of enmity to Caesar, allied themselves with _Pompeius_. It was determined to prevent him from standing as a candidate for the consulship, unless he should lay down his command, and come to Rome. He offered to resign his military power if _Pompeius_ would do the same. This was refused. Finally he was directed to give up his command in Gaul before the expiration of the time which had been set for the termination of it. This order, if carried into effect, would have reduced him to the rank of a private citizen, and have left him at the mercy of his enemies. The tribunes, including his devoted supporter, _Marcus Antonius_, in vain interposed the veto, and fled from the city. _Caesar_ determined to disobey the order of the Senate. His legions--two had been withdrawn on the false pretext of needing them for the Parthian war--clung to him, with the exception of one able officer, _T. Labienus_. _Caesar_ acted with great promptitude. He crossed the _Rubicon_, the boundary of the Gallic Cisalpine province, before _Pompeius_--who had declared, that with a stamp of his foot he could call up armed men from the ground--had made adequate preparations to meet him. The strength of _Pompeius_ was mainly in the _East_, the scene of his former glory; and he was, perhaps, not unwilling to retire to that region, taking with him the throng of aristocratic leaders, who fled precipitately on learning of the approach of _Caesar_. _Pompeius_ sailed from Brundisium to _Epirus_. _Cicero_, who had ardently desired an accommodation between the rivals, was in an agony of doubt as to what course it was right and best for him to take, since he saw reason to dread the triumph of either side. Reluctantly he decided to cast in his lot with the Senate and its newly gained champion. PHARSALUS: THAPSUS: MUNDA.--Caesar gained the advantage of securing the state treasure which _Pompeius_ had unaccountably left behind him, and was able to establish his power in _Italy_. Before pursuing Pompeius, he marched through _Gaul_ into _Spain_ (49 B.C.), conquered the Pompeian forces at _Ilerda_, and secured his hold upon that country. He then crossed the Adriatic, He encountered Pompeius, who could not manage his imprudent officers, on the plain of _Pharsalus_ (48 B.C.), where the senatorial army was completely overthrown. _Pompeius_ sailed for Egypt; but, just as he was landing, he was treacherously assassinated. His head was sent to _Caesar_, who wept at the spectacle, and punished the murderers. _Caesar_ gained friends everywhere by the exercise of a judicious clemency, which accorded with his natural disposition. He next went to _Egypt_. There he was met by _Cleopatra_, whose dazzling beauty captivated him. She reigned in conjunction with her younger brother, who, according to the Egyptian usage, was nominally her husband. The Egyptians were roused against Caesar, and, on one occasion, he saved his life by swimming; but he finally defeated and destroyed the Egyptian army. At _Zela_, in _Pontus_, he met and vanquished _Pharnaces_, the revolted son of _Mithridates_, and sent the laconic message, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered). Early in 46 he landed in _Africa_, and, at _Thapsus_, annihilated the republican forces in that region. A most powerful combination was made against him in _Spain_, including some of his old officers and legionaries, and the two sons of _Pompeius_. But in the hard-fought battle at _Munda_ (March, 45 B.C.), when Caesar was himself in great personal danger, he was, as usual, triumphant. CAESAR AS A CIVILIAN.--Marvelous as the career of Caesar as a general was, his merit as a civilian outstrips even his distinction as a soldier. He saw that the world could no longer be governed by the Roman rabble, and that monarchy was the only alternative. He ruled under the forms of the old constitution, taking the post of dictator and censor for life, and absorbing in himself the other principal republican offices. The whole tendency of his measures, which were mostly of a very wholesome character, was not only to remedy abuses of administration, but to found a system of orderly administration in which Rome should be not the sole _mistress_, but simply the _capital_, of the world-wide community which had been subjected to her authority. THE GOVERNMENT OF CAESAR.--Caesar made the _Senate_ an advisory body. He increased the number of senators, bringing in provincials as well as Roman citizens. He gave full citizenship to all the _Transpadane Gauls_, and to numerous communities in _Transalpine Gaul_, in _Spain_, and elsewhere. He established a wide-spread colonization, thus planting his veterans in different places abroad, and lessening the number of proletarians in Italy. He rebuilt _Carthage_ and _Corinth_. He re-organized the army, and the civil administration in the provinces. In the space of five years, while he was busy in important wars, he originated numerous governmental measures of the utmost value. THE MOTIVES OF CAESAR.--The designs of Caesar and of his party are to be distinguished from what they actually accomplished. Caesar was not impelled by a desire to improve the government of the provinces, in taking up arms against the Senate. Nor did he owe his success to the support of provincials; although, in common with the rest of the democratic party at Rome, he was glad to have them for allies. The custom had grown up of virtually giving to eminent generals, absolute power for extended intervals. This was done, for example, in the case of _Marius_, on the occasion of the invasion of the _Cimbrians_ and _Teutones_. In such exigencies, it was found necessary to create what was equivalent to a military dictatorship. The idea of military rule became familiar. The revolution made by Caesar was achieved by military organization, and was a measure of personal self-defense on his part. Being raised to the supreme power, he sought to rule according to the wise and liberal ideas which were suggested by the actual condition of the world, and the undesirableness of a continued domination of a single city, with such a populace as that of Rome. Before he could carry out his large schemes, he was cut down. ASSASSINATION OF CAESAR.--Caesar was tired of staying in Rome, and was proposing to undertake an expedition against the Parthians. Neither his clemency nor the necessity and the merits of the government sustained by him, availed to shield him against the machinations of enemies. The aristocratic party detested his policy. He was suspected of aiming at the title, as well as the power, of a king. A conspiracy made up of numerous senators who secretly hated him, of other individuals influenced by personal spite, and of republican visionaries like _Cassius_ and _Junius Brutus_, who gloried in what they considered tyrannicide, assaulted him on the ides of March (March 15, 44 B.C.) in the hall of _Pompeius_, whither he had come to a session of the Senate. He received twenty-three wounds, one of which, at least, was fatal, and fell, uttering, a tradition said, a word of gentle reproach to Brutus, one who had been counted a special friend. _Cicero_ had acquiesced in the new government, and eulogized _Caesar_ and his administration. But even he expressed his satisfaction at the event which left the republic without a master. An amnesty to those who slew Caesar was advocated by him, and decreed by the Senate. THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE.--The Senate gave to the leading conspirators provinces; to _Decimus Brutus_, Cisalpine Gaul. But at Rome there was quickly a re-action of popular wrath against the enemies of Csesar, which was skillfully fomented by _Marcus Antonius_ in the address which he made to the people over his dead body, pierced with so many wounds. The people voted to give Cisalpine Gaul to _Antonius_, and he set out to take it from _Decimus Brutus_ by force of arms. _Cicero_ delivered a famous series of harangues against Antonius, called the _Philippics. Antonius,_ being defeated, fled to _Lepidus_, the governor of Transalpine Gaul. _Octavius_, the grand-nephew and adopted son of _Caesar_, a youth of eighteen, now became prominent, and at first was supported by the Senate in the hope of balancing the power of _Antonius_. But in October, 43, _Octavianus_ (as he was henceforward called), _Antonius,_ and _Lepidus_ together formed a second triumvirate, which became legal, by the ratification of the people, for the period of five years. A proscription for the destruction of the enemies of the three contracting parties was a part of this alliance. A great number were put to death, among them _Cicero_, a sacrifice to the vengeance of Antonius. War against the republicans was the necessary consequence. At _Philippi_ in Thrace, in the year 42, _Antonius_ and _Octavianus_ defeated _Brutus_ and _Cassius_, both of whom committed suicide. _Porcia_, the wife of _Brutus_, and the daughter of _Cato_, on hearing of her husband's death, put an end to her own life. Many other adherents of the republic followed the example of their leaders. The victors divided the world between themselves, _Antonius_ taking the east, _Octavianus_ the west, while to the weak and avaricious _Lepidus_, Africa was assigned; but he was soon deprived of his share by _Octavianus_. CIVIL WAR: ACTIUM.--_Antonius_ was enamoured of _Cleopatra_, and, following her to Egypt, gave himself up to luxury and sensual gratification. Civil war between _Octavianus_ and the followers of _Antonius_ in Italy (40, 41 B.C.) was followed by the marriage of _Octavia_, the sister of _Octavianus_, to _Antonius_. But after a succession of disputes between the two regents, there was a final breach. _Antonius_ (35) went so far as to give Roman territories to the sons of _Cleopatra_, and to send to _Octavia_ papers of divorce. The Senate, at the instigation of _Octavianus_, deprived his unworthy colleague of all his powers. War was declared against _Cleopatra_. East and West were arrayed in arms against one another. The conflict was determined by the naval victory of _Octavianus_at _Actium_ (Sept. 2, 31 B.C.). Before the battle was decided, _Cleopatra_ fled, and was followed by _Antonius_. When the latter approached _Alexandria_, _Antonius_, deceived by the false report that _Cleopatra_ had destroyed herself, threw himself upon his sword and died. _Cleopatra_, finding herself unable to fascinate the conqueror, but believing that he meant that she should adorn his public triumph at Rome, poisoned herself (30). _Egypt_ was made into a Roman province. The month _Sextilis_, on which _Octavianus_returned to Rome, received in honor of him the name of "August," from "Augustus," the "venerated" or "illustrious," the name given him in 27 B.C. by the Roman people and Senate. He celebrated three triumphs; and, for the third time since the city was founded, the Temple of Janus was closed. PERIOD V. THE IMPERIAL MONARCHY: _TO THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TEUTONIC TRIBES (375 A.D.)._ CHAPTER I. THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS. AUGUSTUS AS A RULER.--The long-continued, sanguinary civil wars made peace welcome. _Augustus_ knew how to conceal his love of power under a mild exterior, and to organize the monarchy with a nominal adherence to republican forms. The controlling magistracies, except the censorship, were transferred to him. As _Imperator_, he had unlimited command over the military forces, and was at the head of a standing army of three hundred and forty thousand men. To him it belonged to decide on peace and war. The _Senate_ became the real legislative body, issuing _senatus-consulta_. There was also a sort of "cabinet council" chosen by him from its members. The authority of the _Tribunes_ belonged to him, and thus the popular assemblies became more and more a nullity. "The Senate was made up of his creatures; the people were won by bread and games; the army was fettered to him by means of booty and gifts." While the forms of a free state remained, all the functions of authority were exercised by the ruler. STATE OF THE EMPIRE.--(1) _Its Extent_. The Roman Empire extended from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, a distance of more than three thousand miles, and from the Danube and the English Channel--later, from the friths of Scotland--to the cataracts of the Nile and the African desert. Its population was somewhere from eighty millions to one hundred and twenty millions. It was composed of the _East_ and the _West_, a distinction that was not simply geographical, but included deeper characteristic differences. (2) _The Provinces_. The provinces were divided (27 B.C.) into the _proconsular_, ruled by the Senate, and the _imperial_, ruled by the legates of Augustus. His authority, however, was everywhere supreme. Over all the empire extended the system of Roman law, the rights and immunities of which belonged to Roman citizens everywhere. (3) _The Two Languages_. It was a _Romano-Hellenic_ monarchy. Local dialects remained; but the _Greek_ language was the language of commerce, and of polite intercourse in all places. The Greek tongue and Hellenic culture were the common property of the nations. The _Latin_ was prevalent west of the Adriatic. It was adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, and in other provinces. It was the language of courts and of the camp. (4) _Journeys and Trade_. The Roman territory was covered with a net-work of magnificent roads. Journeys for purposes of trade and from motives of curiosity were common. Religious pilgrimages to famous shrines were frequent. The safety and peace which followed upon the civil wars stimulated traffic and intercourse between the different regions united under the imperial government. LITERATURE.--The Augustan period was the golden age of Roman literature. Literary works were topics of conversation in social circles. Libraries were collected by the rich. The shops of booksellers were places of resort for cultivated people. There were active and liberal patrons of poets and of other men of letters. Such patrons were _Maecenas_, _Horace's_ friend, and _Augustus_ himself. Then favors were repaid by praises and flattery, as we see in the verses of _Horace_, _Virgil_, and especially of _Ovid_. The lectures of grammarians and rhetoricians, of philosophers and physicians, were largely attended. Literary societies were formed. Periodicals and bulletins were published, in which the proceedings of the Senate and of the courts were recorded. The business of _scribes_--copyists of manuscripts--engaged a vast number of persons. WRITINGS OF CICERO.--Cicero (106-43), in his philosophic writings, reproduces the thoughts and speculations of the Greek sages, in the manner of a cultivated and appreciative student. His speeches and his epistles, especially those to his friend, _Atticus_, lift the veil, as it were, and afford us most interesting glimpses of the civil and social life of the Romans of that day. THE POETS.--One of the most original of the Latin poets is _Lucretius_ (95-51 B.C.), whose poem "On the Nature of Things" is an effort to dispel superstitious fear by inculcating the Epicurean doctrine that the world is self-made through the movement and concussion of atoms, and that the gods leave it to care for itself. A contemporary of Lucretius, and a poet of equal merit, but in an altogether different vein, is _Catullus_. He is chiefly noted for his lyrics. _Virgil_ (70-19 B.C.), in the _Aeneid_, has produced a genuine Roman epic, although his dependence on Homer is obvious throughout, and in the _Bucolics_, and in particular in the _Georgics_, where he shows most originality, has made himself immortal as a pastoral poet. _Horace_ (65-8 B.C.), like most of the Roman authors, in many of his poems is inspired by his Greek models, but, in his _Satires_ and _Poetic Epistles_, expresses the character of his own genius. His "Odes," for their beauty and melody and the variety of their topics, rank among the best of all productions of their kind. _Ovid_ (43 B.C.-A.D. 18), in his chief work, the _Metamorphoses_, handled the mythical tales of the Greeks, and, in his poems on _Love_, likewise introduced many Grecian tales. He was much influenced by the Alexandrian poets. THE HISTORIANS.--In historical composition, most of the Roman authors had Greek patterns before their eyes. Nevertheless, _Livy_ (59 B.C.-A.D. 17), thirty-five of the one hundred and forty-two books of whose "Annals" have been preserved, and _Sallust_, to whom we are indebted for narratives of the conspiracy of Cataline and of the Jugurthine war, are far from being servile copyists. The simple and lucid but graceful style of the _Commentaries_ of _Caesar_ makes this work an example of the purest Latin prose. LAW WRITERS.--In one department, that of jurisprudence, the Romans were eminently original. The writings of the great jurists were simple and severe, and free from the rhetorical traits which Roman authors in other departments borrowed from the Greeks. OTHER AUTHORS.--Among other eminent authors of this period are the great Roman antiquary _Varro_ (116-27 B.C.); the elegiac poets, _Tibullus_ and _Propertius_; _Phaedrus_, the Roman Aesop; the historian, _Cornelius Nepos_; and the Greek historical writers of that day, _Diodore_ of Sicily and _Dionysius_ of Halicarnassus; also _Strabo_, the Greek geographer (64 B.C.-A.D. 24). THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. THE JEWS AND THEIR DISPERSION.--There were three ancient peoples, each of which fulfilled an office of its own in history. The _Greeks_ were the intellectual people, the _Romans_ were founders in law and politics: from the _Hebrews_ the true religion was to spring. At the epoch of the birth of Jesus, the Hebrews, like the Greeks and Romans, were scattered abroad, and mingled with all other nations. Wherever they went they carried their pure monotheism, and built their synagogues for instruction in the law and for common worship. In the region of _Babylon_, a multitude of Jews had remained after the captivity. Two out of the five sections of _Alexandria_ were occupied by them. At _Antioch_ in Syria, the other great meeting-place of peoples of diverse origin and religion, they were very numerous. In the cities of Asia Minor, of Greece and Macedonia, in Illyricum and in Rome, they were planted in large numbers. Jewish merchants went wherever there was room for profitable trade. Generally regarded with aversion on account of their religious exclusiveness, they nevertheless made so many proselytes that the Roman philosopher, _Seneca_, said of them, "The conquered have given laws to the conquerors." Prophecy had inspired the Jews with an abiding and fervent expectation of the ultimate conquest of heathenism, and prevalence of their faith. If the hope of a temporal Messiah to free them from the Roman yoke, and to lead them to an external victory and dominion, burned in the hearts of most, there were some of a more spiritual mind and of deeper aspirations, who looked for One who should minister to the soul, and bring in a reign of holiness and peace. PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE HEATHEN.--In the heathen world, there was not wanting a preparation for such a Deliverer. The union of all the nations in the Roman Empire had lessened the mutual antipathy of peoples, melted down barriers of feeling as well as of intercourse, and weakened the pride of race. An indistinct sense of a common humanity had entered the breasts of men. Writers, like _Cicero_, talked of a great community, a single society of gods and men. The _Stoic philosophy_ had made this idea familiar. Mankind, it was said, formed one city. Along with this conception, precepts were uttered in favor of forbearance and fraternal kindness between man and man. In religion, there was a drift towards monotheism. The old mythological religion was decaying, and traditional beliefs as to divine things were dissolving. Many minds were yearning for something to fill the void,--for a more substantial ground of rest and of hope. They longed for a goal on which their aspirations might center, and to which their exertions might tend. The burden of sin and of suffering that rested on the common mass excited at least a vague yearning for deliverance. The Roman Empire, with all its treasures and its glory, failed to satisfy the hearts of men. The dreams of philosophy could not be realized on the basis of ancient society, where the state was every thing, and where no higher, more comprehensive and more enduring kingdom could spring into being. CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES.--Four years before the date assigned for the beginning of the Christian era, _Jesus_ was born. _Herod_, a tyrannical king, servile in his attitude toward the Romans, and subject to them, was then ruling over the Jews in Palestine. But, when Jesus began his public ministry, the kingship had been abolished, and Judaea was governed by the procurator, _Pontius Pilate_ (A.D. 26). Jesus announced himself as the _Messiah_, the founder of a kingdom "not of this world;" the members of which were to be brethren, having God for their Father. He taught in a tone of authority, yet with "a sweet reasonableness;" and his wonderful teaching was accompanied with marvelous works of power and mercy, as "he went about doing good." He attached to himself twelve disciples, among whom _Peter_, and the two brothers _James_ and _John_, were the men of most mark. These had listened to the preaching of _John_, the prophet of the wilderness, by whom Jesus had been recognized as the Christ who was to come. The ministry of the Christ produced a wide-spread excitement, and a deep impression upon humble and truth-loving souls. But his rebuke of the ruling class, the _Pharisees_, for their formalism, pretended sanctity, self-seeking, and enslavement to tradition, excited in them rancorous enmity. His disappointment of the popular desire for a political Messiah chilled the enthusiasm of the multitude, many of whom had heard him gladly. After about three years, he was betrayed by one of his followers, _Judas Iscariot_; was accused of heterodoxy and blasphemy before the Jewish Sanhedrim; the consent of Pilate to his death was extorted by a charge of treason based on the title of "king," which he had not refused; and he was crucified between two malefactors. Not many days elapsed before his disciples rallied from their despondency, and boldly and unitedly declared, before magistrates and people, that he had manifested himself to them in bodily form, in a series of interviews at definite places and times. They proclaimed his continued though invisible reign, his perpetual presence with them, and his future advent in power. In his name, and on the ground of his death, they preached the forgiveness of sins to all who should believe in him, and enter on a life of Christian obedience. In the year 33 or 34, the death of _Stephen_, the first martyr, at the hands of a Jewish mob, for a time dispersed the church at Jerusalem, and was one step towards the admission of the Gentiles to the privileges of the new faith. But the chief agent in effecting this result, and in thus giving to Christianity its universal character and mission, was the Apostle _Paul_, a converted Pharisee. _Antioch_ in Syria became the cradle of the Gentile branch of the church, and of the missions to the heathen, in which Paul was the leader; while _Peter_ was efficient in spreading the gospel among the Jews in Palestine and beyond its borders. By Paul numerous churches were founded in the course of three extended missionary journeys, which led him beyond Asia into Macedonia, Greece, and Illyricum. By him the gospel was preached from Jerusalem to Rome, where he died as a martyr under _Nero_ in 67 or 68. Not far from the same time, according to a credible tradition, Peter, also, was put to death at Rome. The preachers of the Christian faith pursued their work with a fearless and untiring spirit, and met the malignant persecution of the Jews and the fanatical assaults of the heathen with patient endurance and with prayer for the pardon and enlightenment of their persecutors. THE VICTORY OF THE GERMANS.--Augustus avoided war when he could. His aim was to defend the frontiers of the empire rather than to extend them. The Parthians were prevailed on to return of their own accord the standards and prisoners taken from the army of _Crassus_. But in Germany, _Drusus_, the brave step-son of _Augustus_, made four campaigns on the east of the Rhine, as far as the Weser and the Elbe. On his way back from the Elbe, a fall from his horse terminated his life (9 B.C.). His brother, _Tiberius_, managed to establish the Roman power over a part of the Germanic tribes on the right bank of the river (4 B.C.) Long before (27 B.C.) the western shore of the river had been formed into two provinces, _Upper_ and _Lower Germany_. An incapable and incautious general, _Quintilius Varus_, excited the freedom-loving Germans to revolt under the brave chief of the _Cherusci_, _Arminius_ (or Hermann). Three Roman legions were annihilated in the _Teutoburg_ forest, Varus taking his own life. The civil and military chiefs who were taken captive, the Germans slew as a sacrifice to their gods. The rest of the prisoners were made slaves. "Many a Roman from an equestrian or a senatorial house grew old in the service of a German farmer, as a servant in the house, or in tending cattle without." There in the forest of _Teutoburg_ the Germans practically won their independence. On hearing the bad news, Augustus, for several days, could only exclaim, "Varus! give me back my legions!" After the death of Augustus, in his seventy-sixth year, the noble son of Drusus, _Germanicus_, conducted three expeditions against _Arminius_ (A.D. 14-16), obtained a victory over him, and took his wife prisoner, who died in captivity; but the Romans permanently held only the left bank of the Rhine. ROMAN LIFE.--Various particulars characteristic of Roman ways have been, or will be, incidentally referred to. A few special statements may be given in this place. The Romans, like the Greeks, built a town round a height (or capitol) where was a stronghold (_arx_), a place of refuge. Here temples were erected. The _forum_, or market-place, was near by, where the courts sat, and where the people came together to transact business. The dwellings were on the sides of the hill, or on the plain beneath. The streets were narrow. The exterior of the houses was plain. They were of brick, generally covered with stucco, and whitewashed. Glass was too costly to be much used: hence the openings in the walls were few. When the space became valuable, as in Rome, the houses were built high. The chief room in the house was the _atrium_, which, in earlier times, was not only the common room but also the bedroom of the family. In the primitive dwellings it had been the only room. A passage led from it through a door-way into the street. In front and on both sides were apartments, and in the rear a walled court, or garden. Large houses had several inclosed courts. Rich men and nobles built magnificent palaces. The walls of Roman dwellings within were decorated with fresco-paintings, some of which at Pompeii are left in all their freshness. Round the dinner-table were couches, on which those who partook of the meal reclined. In other rooms chairs were plentifully supplied. Lamps were very numerous and of beautiful design, but the wick was so small that they gave but little light. There was little furniture in the _atrium_. Statues stood round the walls of this room, if the house were one of the better sort, and in open presses on the walls were the images or masks of the distinguished ancestors of the family. At a funeral of a member of the household they were worn in the procession by persons representing the deceased progenitors. DRESS.--The principal material of a Roman's dress was woolen cloth. The main article of wearing apparel for a man was the _toga_, thrown over the shoulders, and brought in folds round the waist in a way to leave the right arm free. Under it was a tunic. At the age of about seventeen, the boy publicly laid aside the _toga_ with a purple hem, and put on the white toga, the token of citizenship. Women wore a long tunic girded about the waist, with a tunic and a close-fitting vest beneath. Except on a journey or in an open theater, as a protection from the sun, neither men nor women wore any covering on the head. Women, when they walked abroad, wore veils which did not cover the face. The color and form of the shoes varied with the rank of the individual, and were significant of it. In the house, sandals were used. ORDER OF OCCUPATIONS.--The interval from sunrise to sunset was divided into twelve hours. The seventh hour of the day began at noon. At the third hour, there was usually a light meal, which was followed by business, or visits of friendship. The wealthy Roman was followed about the city by a throng of clients, who called on him with their morning greeting before he rose, and received their gift of food or money. At noon came the _prandium_, or more substantial breakfast. This was followed by a short sleep, in the case of those who were at leisure to take it. Then came games and physical exercise of various sorts. A favorite recreation, both for young and old, was ball-games. Exercise was succeeded by the bath, for which the Romans from the later times of the republic had a remarkable fondness. In private houses the bathing conveniences were luxurious. The emperors built magnificent bath-houses, which included gymnasia, and sometimes libraries. What is now called the Turkish bath was very much in vogue. Dinner, or the _cena_, the principal meal, was about midway between noon and sunset. The fork was not used at the table, but only in carving; but spoons, and sometimes, it would appear, knives, were used by the host and his guests. The food was so carved that it was usually taken with the fingers. At the table, the toga was exchanged for a lighter garment, and sandals were laid aside. The beverage was wine mixed with water. At banquets of the rich, after the dessert of fruit and cakes had been taken, there was, in later times, the _convivium_, or social "drinking-bout." Under the empire, this became often a scene of indecent revelry. The Roman dinner-table was not so likely as a Greek repast to be enlivened by flashes of intellect and of wit, or by music furnished by the guests. Musicians were more commonly hired performers, as were also the dancers. The Romans enjoyed games of chance. Playing with dice, and gambling along with it, became common. MARRIAGE AND THE HOUSEHOLD.--There were two kinds of marriage. By one the wife passed entirely out of the hands (_manus_) of the father into the hands of the husband, or under his control. There was frequently a religious rite (_confarreatio_); but, when this did not take place, the other customary ceremonies were essentially the same. At the betrothal the prospective bride was frequently presented with a ring, and with some more valuable gift, by the man whom she was to marry. In the household, notwithstanding the supreme authority of the husband, the wife had an honored position and an active influence. The children were, in law, the property of the father. Their lives were at his disposal. The mother had charge of their early training. The father took the principal charge of the young boy, taught him athletic exercises, and took him to the forum with him. Schools began to exist in the early period. Boys and girls studied together. The _pedagogue_ was the servant who accompanied the child to school, and conducted him home. Greek was studied. The law of the Twelve Tables was committed to memory. Virgil and Horace became school-books, along with Cicero and earlier writers. In the later republican period, Greeks took the business of teaching largely into their hands. There were flourishing schools of rhetoric managed both by Greek and by Latin teachers. Young Romans who could afford to do so went to Athens and other cities in the East for their university training. SLAVES.--Town-slaves were found in the richer families in great numbers (p. 152). They were not only employed in menial occupations: they were clerks, copyists, sculptors, architects, etc., as well as actors and singers. The work of the farm-slaves was harder. They were shut up in the night in large barracks, made partly under ground, into which was admitted but little light or air. They often worked in chains. In town and country both, the unlimited power of the master led to great severity and cruelty in the treatment of slaves. Women as well as men were often guilty of brutal harshness. Females as well as males were the sufferers. The town-slave, however, might be favored by his master: he might be allowed to save money of his own, and might, perhaps, buy his freedom, or receive it as a gift. During the holidays of the _Saturnalia_, slaves were allowed unusual privileges and pleasures. The _freedmen_ could become citizens, and were then eligible to any office. MAGISTRATES.--A Roman who sought office went round soliciting votes. This was called _ambitio_ (from _ambire_, to go round), whence is derived the English word _ambition_. He presented himself in public places in a toga specially whitened, and was hence called a _candidate_ (from _candida_, meaning _white_). He sought to get support by providing shows and games. The voting was by ballot. Magistrates had their seats of honor, which were made in a particular shape. In the different forms used in the trial of causes, there was one general practice,--the magistrate laid down the law, and referred the judgment as to the facts in the case to an umpire, either an individual or a special court. THE JULIAN IMPERIAL HOUSE. C. JULIUS CÆSAR, _m_. Aurelia. | +--C. JULIUS CÆSAR. | +--Julia, _m_. M. Atius Balbus. | +--Atia, _m_. C. Octavius. | +--C. Octavius (adopted as son by the will of Julius) became C. JULIUS CÆSAR OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS, _m_. 2, Scribonia; | +--Julia _m_. 2, M. Vipsanius Agrippa. | +--Agrippina, | _m_. Germanicus. | | | +--CAIUS (Caligula), | | _m_. Cæsonia, | | | | | +--Julia Drusilla. | | | +--Agrippina, | _m_. Cn. Domitius. | | | +--L. DOMITIUS NERO, | _m_. Poppæa Sabina. | | | +--Claudia Augusta. | +--Julia, _m_. Æmilius Paulus. | +--Æmilia Lepida, _m_. 1, CLAUDIUS; 2, Junius Silanus. | +--Junia Calvina, _m_. VITELLIUS. 3, Livia. | +--TIBERIUS (adopted as son by Augustus). THE CLAUDIAN IMPERIAL HOUSE. TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO. _m_. Livia Drusilla (afterwards wife of AUGUSTUS). | +--TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO. | +--Drusus Claudius Nero, _m_. Antonia, daughter of the Triumvir and niece of Augustus. | +--Germanicus, | _m_. Agrippina. | +--TI. CLAUDIUS DRUSUS, _m_. 5, Valeria Messalina. | +--Octavia, | _m_. NERO. | +--Britannicus. | +--By adoption, NERO. CHAPTER II. THE EMPERORS OF THE AUGUSTAN HOUSE. TIBERIUS.--During the long reign of the prudent _Augustus_, there was peace within the borders of the empire. He said of himself, that he "found Rome of brick, and left it of marble." This change may be taken as a symbol of the growth of material prosperity in the Roman dominions. But in his private relations, the emperor was less fortunate. His daughter _Julia_, a woman of brilliant talents, disgraced him by her immorality, and he was obliged to banish her. Her two elder sons died when they were young. The empire devolved on his adopted step-son _Tiberius_ (14-37), who endeavored to continue the same conservative policy. Tiberius was at first alarmed by mutinies among the troops in Pannonia and on the Rhine. The army of the Rhine urged _Germanicus_, the emperor's adopted son and probable successor, to lead it to Rome, promising to place him on the throne, but _Germanicus_ succeeded in quieting the disturbance. As there were during this reign no great wars, _Tiberius_ was able to devote himself more exclusively to the civil administration. He transferred from the popular assembly to the Senate the right of choosing the magistrates, emphasizing in this way the dual system that Augustus had created. The rights of the Senate he appeared scrupulously to respect. For the more effective government of the city of Rome he established there a permanent prefecture and brought together in a camp before the Viminal gate the nine prætorian cohorts. Unhappily this Prætorian Guard, which might serve to overawe the city mobs, might also interfere in the affairs of government. Indeed, a little later it had to be counted with in the choice of emperors. The notorious _Sejanus_ was prefect during a large part of this reign, and acquired so completely the confidence of Tiberius that he began to plot his overthrow. He had already caused _Drusus_, the son of Tiberius, to be poisoned in order to remove one obstacle. Finally the emperor discovered his plots and caused him to be arrested and put to death (31). For several years Tiberius had been living in retirement on the island of _Capreæ_. There his enemies represented him as given over to debauchery, while the lives of Roman citizens were never safe from his suspicions or from the accusations of the _delators_, men who presented formal charges of crime, there being no public prosecutors. Earlier in his reign _Tiberius_ had shown a serious purpose to improve the administration of justice, but with the lapse of years he became distrustful and cruel. He had, moreover, changed the law of treason so that to write or speak slightingly of the emperor was interpreted as conspiracy to bring the commonwealth into contempt and was punished with death. Although he was justly hated by the Roman nobles, in the provinces he was respected because he sought to protect them against extortion and to foster their general interests. He died in the year 37 at the age of seventy-eight. CALIGULA.--There was no law for the regulation of the succession. But the Senate, the prætorians, and the people united in calling to the throne _Caius_, the son of Germanicus (37-41). This ruler, called _Caligula_, at first mild and generous in his doings, soon rushed into such excesses of savage cruelty and monstrous vice that he was thought to be half-deranged. He was fond of seeing with his own eyes the infliction of tortures. His wild extravagance in the matter of public games and in building drained the resources of the empire. After four years, this madman was cut down by two of his guards whom he had grievously insulted. CLAUDIUS.--_Claudius_, the uncle and successor of _Caligula_, and the son of Drusus and Antonia, was not bad, but weak. He was a student and a recluse in his habits. His favorites and nearest connections were unprincipled. The depravity of his wife, _Messalina_, was such that he did right in sanctioning her death. The immoral and ambitious _Agrippina_, whom he next married, had an influence less malign. But she was unfaithful to her husband; and this fact, together with the fear she felt that _Nero_, her son by her first marriage, would be excluded from the throne, impelled her to the crime of taking the life of _Claudius_ by poison. NERO.--_Nero_ reigned from 54 to 68. He was the grandson of Germanicus, and had been the pupil of the philosopher _Seneca_, and of _Burrus_, an excellent man, the captain of the Prætorian Guard. The first five years of Nero's reign were honorably distinguished from the portion of it that followed. When a warrant for the execution of a criminal was brought to him, he regretted that he had ever learned to write. His first great crime was the poisoning of _Britannicus_, the son of _Claudius_. Nero became enamored of a fierce and ambitious woman, _Poppæa Sabina_. On the basis of false charges, he took the life of his wife, _Octavia_, the daughter of Claudius (A.D. 62). His criminal mother, Agrippina, after various previous attempts made by him to destroy her, was dispatched by his command (A.D. 59). His unbridled cruelty and jealousy moved him to order _Seneca_, one of the men to whom he owed most, to commit suicide. He came forward as a musician, and nothing delighted him so much as the applause rendered to his musical performances. He recited his own poems, and was stung with jealousy when he found himself outdone by _Lucan_. His eagerness to figure as a charioteer prompted him, early in his reign, to construct a circus in his own grounds on the _Vatican_, where he could exhibit his skill as a coachman to a throng of delighted spectators. At length he appeared, lyre in hand, on the stage before the populace. Senators of high descent, and matrons of noble family, were induced by his example and commands to come forward in public as dancers and play-actors. The public treasure he squandered in expensive shows, and in the lavish distribution of presents in connection with them. THE CHRISTIANS.--_Nero_ has the undesirable distinction of being the first of the emperors to persecute the Christians. In A.D. 64 a great fire broke out at Rome, which laid a third of the city in ashes. He was suspected of having kindled it; and, in order to divert suspicion from himself, he charged the crime upon the Christians, who were obnoxious, _Tacitus_ tells us, on account of their "hatred of the human race." Their withdrawal from customary amusements and festivals, which involved immorality or heathen rites, naturally gave rise to this accusation of cynical misanthropy. A great number were put to death, "and in their deaths they were made subjects of sport; for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and, when day declined, were burned to serve for nocturnal lights." At length a feeling of compassion arose among the people for the victims of this wanton ferocity. Prior to this time, while the Christians were confounded with the Jews as one of their sects, they had been more protected than persecuted by the Roman authorities. Now that they were recognized as a distinct body,--the adherents of a new religion not identified with any particular nation, but seeking to spread itself everywhere,--they fell under the condemnation of Roman law, and were exposed to the hostility of magistrates, as well as to the wrath of the fanatical populace. Nero was a great builder. The ground which had been burnt over in the fire he laid out in regular streets, leaving open spaces, and limiting the height of the houses. But a large area he reserved for his "Golden House," which, with its lakes and shady groves, stretched over the ground on which the Coliseum afterwards stood, and as far as the Esquiline. THE CITY OF ROME.--Ancient Rome was mostly built on the left bank of the Tiber. It spread from the Palatine, the seat of the original settlement, over six other hills; so that it became the "city of seven hills." All of them appeared higher than they do now. Of these hills the Capitoline was the citadel and the seat of the gods. In earlier days, from a part of the summit, the Tarpeian Rock, criminals were hurled. In time the hill became covered with public edifices, of which the grandest was the Temple of "Capitoline Jupiter." On the Palatine were eventually constructed the vast palaces of the emperors, the ruins of which have been uncovered in recent times. The walls of _Servius Tullius_ encompassed the seven hills. The walls constructed by _Aurelian_ (270-275 A.D.), _Probus_, and _Honorius_ (402 A.D.), inclosed an area twelve miles in circumference. The streets were most of them narrow; and, to economize space, the houses were built very high. One of the finest, as well as most ancient, thoroughfares was the _Via Sacra_, which ran past the Coliseum, or the Flavian amphitheater, and under the Triumphal Arch of _Titus_, erected after the capture of Jerusalem, along the east of the Forum to the Capitol. There was a particular street in Rome where shoemakers and booksellers were congregated. The central part of the city was thronged, and noisy with cries of teamsters and of venders of all sorts of wares. The _fora_--one of which, the "Roman Forum," between the Capitoline and the Palatine, was the great center of Roman life--were open places paved, and surrounded with noble buildings,--temples, and _basilicas_, or halls of justice. The _fora_ were either places for the transaction of public business, or they served the purpose of modern market-places. Among the public buildings of note were the vast colonnades, places of resort both for business and for recreation. The sewers, and especially the aqueducts, were structures of a stupendous character. Among the most imposing edifices in ancient Rome were the baths. Those built by _Diocletian_ had room for three thousand bathers at once. In these establishments the beauty of the gardens and fountains without was on a level with the elegance of the interior furnishings, and with the attraction of the libraries, paintings, and sculptures, which added intellectual pleasure to the physical comfort for which, mainly, these gigantic buildings were constructed. Besides the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, there were many other temples, some of which were but little inferior to that majestic edifice. The triumphal arches--as that of _Titus_, already mentioned, which was built of Pentelic marble--and the commemorative columns--as the Column of _Trajan_, which stood in the forum that bears his name--were among the architectural wonders of the ancient capital of the world. The plain, named of old the _Campus Martius_, on the north-west side of the city, and bordering on the Tiber, contained, among the buildings and pleasure-grounds by which it was covered, the Pantheon, and the magnificent mausoleum of Augustus. On the south-west of the Coelian Hill, the Appian Way turns to the south-east, and passes out of the Appian Gate. It is skirted for miles with sepulchral monuments of ancient Romans, of which the circular tomb of _Metella Cæcilia_ is one of the most interesting. There are varying estimates of the population of ancient Rome. Probably the number of free inhabitants, in the early centuries of the empire, was not far from a million; and the slaves were probably almost as many. DEATH OF NERO: GALBA.--Growing jealous of the legates who commanded armies on the frontiers, _Nero_ determined to destroy them. They consequently revolted; and war between the troops of two of them issued in the death of _Vindex_, the general in Gaul. But _Galba_ was deputed to carry on the contest; and Nero, being forsaken even by his creature, _Tigellinus_, and the prætorians, at last gained courage to call on a slave to dispatch him, and died (A.D. 68) at the age of thirty. The principal events out of Italy, during his reign, were the revolt of the Britons under the brave queen _Boadicea_ (A.D. 61), and the suppression of it by _Suetonius Paulinus_; the war with the Parthians and Armenians, extending slightly the frontier of the empire; and the beginning of the Jewish war. Despite the corruption at Rome, her disciplined soldiers still maintained their superiority on the borders. OTHO: VITELLIUS.--With the death of Nero, the Augustan family came to an end. _Galba_ began the series of military emperors. A Roman of the old type, simple, severe, and parsimonious, he pleased nobody. The prætorians killed him, and elevated _Otho_, a profligate noble, to the throne; but he was obliged to contend with a rival aspirant, _Vitellius_, commander of the German legions, who defeated him, and became emperor A.D. 69. Vitellius was not only vicious, like his predecessor, but was cowardly and inefficient. The Syrian and Egyptian legions refused to obey so worthless a ruler, and proclaimed their commander, _Flavius Vespasian_, as emperor. As Vespasian's general, _Antonius_, approached Rome, _Vitellius_ renounced the throne, and declared his readiness to retire to private life. His adherents withstood him; and, in the struggle that followed between the two parties in the city, the Capitoline Temple was burned. The Flavian army took Rome, and _Vitellius_ was put to an ignominious death (A.D. 69). CHAPTER III. THE FLAVIANS AND THE ANTONINES. VESPASIAN: THE JEWISH WAR.--_Vespasian_, the first in the list of good emperors, restored discipline in the army and among the prætorians, instituted a reform in the finances, and erected the immense amphitheater now called the _Coliseum_, for the gladiatorial games. By his general, _Cerealis_, he put down the revolt in Germany and Eastern Gaul, and thus saved several provinces to the empire. _Civilis_, the leader of the rebellion, had aimed to establish an independent German principality on the west of the Rhine. Vespasian had begun the war with the Jews while _Nero_ reigned (A.D. 66). The Romans had to face a most energetic resistance. Among the captives taken by them in Galilee was the Jewish historian, _Josephus_. At the end of A.D. 67, all Galilee was subdued. The fanatical, or popular, party, the _Zealots_, got the upper hand at _Jerusalem_. The city was torn with the strife of violent factions. In A.D. 70 commenced the memorable siege by _Titus_, the son of Vespasian, the details of which are given by _Josephus_. The fall of the city was attended with the conflagration of the temple. Although the estimate given by _Josephus_ of the number that perished during the siege, which he places at eleven hundred thousand, is exaggerated, it is true that the destruction of life was immense. The inhabitants of the city who were not killed were sold as slaves. In _Britain_ a most competent officer--_Agricola_, the father-in-law of Tacitus--was made governor in A.D. 78. He conquered the country as far north as the _Tyne_ and the _Solway_, and built a line of forts across the isthmus between England and Scotland. TITUS (A.D. 79-81).--Vespasian's firm and beneficent reign was followed by the accession of _Titus_, who had been previously associated by his father with himself in the imperial office. Titus was mild in temper, but voluptuous in his tastes, and prodigal in expenditures. One of the marked events of his short reign was the destruction of the cities of _Pompeii_ and _Herculaneum_ by a great eruption of Vesuvius (A.D. 79). The uncovering of the streets and buildings of _Pompeii_ in recent times has added much to our knowledge of ancient arts and customs. A terrible fire and destructive pestilence at Rome were regarded as sent by the gods, not on account of the sins of the emperor, but of the nation. DOMITIAN (A.D. 81-96).--_Domitian_, the younger brother of _Titus_, succeeded him. By nature autocratic, he refused to share the government with the senate, as Augustus had planned. In order the more completely to control this body he assumed the censorship for life. In the latter part of his reign _Domitian_, like _Tiberius_, was gloomy and suspicious, and committed many acts of tyranny. He was killed by the freedmen of his own palace (A.D. 96). His war with the _Dacians_ on the Danube had been concluded by the dubious stipulation to pay them an annual tribute as a reward for abstaining from predatory incursions into _Moesia_ (A.D. 90). For the first time, Rome purchased peace of her enemies. _Domitian_ was guilty of persecuting the Christians, among whom, it is now known, was included at least one member of his own family, his niece, _Flavia Domatilla_, who was also allied to him by marriage. The epistle of _Clement_ of Rome, the oldest extant Christian writing after the Apostles, refers to the barbarities inflicted upon Christian disciples by this tyrant. NERVA (A.D. 96-98).--The Senate now took the initiative, and placed on the throne one of their own number, _Nerva_, an old man of mild and virtuous character. The administration was in every point in contrast with the preceding. But the best thing Nerva did was to provide for the curbing of the prætorians by appointing, with the concurrence of the Senate, a most competent man to be his colleague and successor. TRAJAN (A.D. 98-117).--_Trajan_ was a native of Spain, and had been brought up in the camp. He belongs among the very best of the Roman emperors. He upheld the ancient laws and institutions of the state. He provided for the impartial administration of justice. He restored freedom of speech in the Senate. He founded schools, and establishments for the care of orphans, facilitated commerce by building new roads, bridges, and havens, and adorned Rome with a public library, and with a new and magnificent forum, or market-place, where "Trajan's Column" was placed by Senate and people as a monument of his victories and services. He relished the society of literary men like the historian _Tacitus_. He was an intimate friend of _Pliny_ (the younger), whose correspondence while he was governor of _Bithynia_ throws much light upon the emperor's character and policy. Trajan's own manner of life was simple, and free from luxury. To the people he furnished lavishly the diversions which they coveted. He made an aggressive war against the _Dacians_ on the Danube, and constituted a new province of _Dacia_. He carried his arms into the _Parthian_ territory; and three new provinces--_Armenia, Mesopotamia_, and _Assyria_--were the fruit of his campaign in the East. In a letter to _Pliny_, he defined the policy to be pursued towards Christians, who had become very numerous in the region where _Pliny_ governed. The effect of the emperor's rescript was to place Christianity among the religions under the ban of the law. This decision was long in force, and guided the policy of future emperors towards the new faith. HADRIAN (A.D. 117-138).--Trajan was succeeded by _Hadrian_, a lover of peace,--a cultivated man, with extraordinary taste in the fine arts, and their generous patron. He was diligent and full of vigor in the transaction of public business. Although genial and affable, his temper was not so even as that of Trajan; and he was guilty of occasional acts of cruelty. He spent the larger portion of his reign in traveling through his dominions, personally attending to the wants and condition of his subjects. He constructed great works in different portions of the empire: in Rome, his Mausoleum (now the _Castle of St. Angelo_), and his grand temple of Rome and Venus. He began the wall connecting the Scottish friths. A fresh revolt broke out among the _Jews_ (A.D. 131), under a fanatic named _Bar-Cocaba_, which was suppressed in 135. _Jerusalem_ was razed to the ground; and the Jewish rites were forbidden within the new city of _Ælia Capitolina_, which the emperor founded on its site. This gave a finishing blow to the Jewish and Judaizing types of Christianity within the limits of the Church. ANTONINUS PIUS (A.D. 138-161).--_Antoninus Pius_ was the adopted son and successor of Hadrian. He was one of the noblest of princes, a man of almost blameless life. His reign was an era of peace, the golden age in the imperial history. He fostered learning, was generous without being prodigal, was firm yet patient and indulgent, and watched over the interests of his subjects with the care of a father. It is a sign of the happiness of his reign that it does not afford startling occurrences to the narrator. MARCUS AURELIUS (A.D. 161-180).--Hardly less eminent for his virtues was the next in the succession of sovereigns, _Marcus Aurelius_ (161-180). "A sage upon the throne," he combined a love of learning with the moral vigor and energy of the old Roman character, and with the self-government and serenity of the Stoic school, of the tenets of which he was a noble exemplar as well as a deeply interesting expounder. A philosopher was now on the throne; and his reign gives some countenance to the doctrine of Plato, that the world could be well governed only when philosophers should be kings, or kings philosophers. He endured with patience the grievous faults of his wife _Faustina_, and of his brother by adoption, and co-regent, _Lucius Verus_. He protected the eastern frontier against _Parthia_. In the war with the _Marcomanni_, he drove the German tribes back over the Danube, and gained a signal victory over the _Quadi_ in their own land. His great object was to strike terror into the barbarian enemies of the empire on the north, and prevent future incursions. Although victorious in many of his battles, he failed to accomplish this result. The danger from barbarian invasion increased with the lapse of time. Before his work was finished, _Marcus Aurelius_ died at _Vindobona_ (Vienna), in March, 180. During his reign, there was persecution of Christians. Especially the churches of _Lyons_ and _Vienne_ have left a record of their sufferings. The virtuous emperors, who were strenuous in their exertions to maintain the old laws and customs, were apt to be more severe in their treatment of Christians, whom they ignorantly regarded as a mischievous sect, than were those emperors who were men of looser principles. STATE OF MORALS.--The Roman Empire, in the declining days of heathenism, presented the spectacle of a flourishing civilization in contrast with extreme moral degeneracy. Rich and populous cities; stately palaces; beautiful works of art--as vases, statues, carved altars--on every hand; bridges and aqueducts, and noble highways, binding land to land; institutions of education in the provincial cities as well as in Rome; a thriving trade and commerce; a rapid spread of the Roman language, of the Roman legal system, and Roman culture and manners over the subject countries,--these are among the signs and fruits of civilization. But with all this outward prosperity and elegance, there was a growing sensuality, a decay of manly feeling, a disregard of the sanctity of the marriage tie, an insatiable hunger for wealth and for the pleasures of sense. One of the most corrupting features in the social condition was _slavery_. Every Roman of moderate means aspired to own at least a few slaves. Some owned from ten to twenty thousand, mostly field-hands. Many householders possessed as many as five hundred. _Horace_ gives it as a sign of the simplicity of his life as a bachelor, that he is waited on at table by only three slaves. Slave-holding among the Romans brought in temptations to all sorts of brutality and vice. It brought a poisonous atmosphere into every household. Nothing more clearly illustrates the moral degradation of this period than the character of the sports in which people of all ranks delighted. The most attractive theatrical performances came to be comedies, from the Greek and Latin plays of the same order, where scenes were introduced from the licentious stories of the Greek mythology. But the _Pantomime_, which was often of an unchaste and even obscene character, gradually usurped the place of every other exhibition on the stage. The chief amusements of the people of all classes were the _Circus_ and the _Arena_. In the _Circus_, before hundreds of thousands of spectators, nobles of ancient lineage competed in the chariot race. _Gladiatorial games_, which had first taken place at funerals, and in honor of deceased friends, acquired an almost incredible popularity. At the games instituted by _Augustus_, ten thousand men joined in these bloody combats. In the festivals under the auspices of _Trajan_, in A.D. 106, eleven thousand tame and wild animals were slain. Not satisfied with seeing pairs of men engage in mortal conflict, the Romans were eager to witness bloodshed on a larger scale. The emperors provided actual battles between hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of men, which were beheld by countless spectators. On an artificial lake in Cæsar's garden, _Augustus_ gave a sea-fight in which three thousand soldiers were engaged. The effect of these brutal spectacles of agony and death was inevitably to harden the heart. LITERATURE.--If the sanguinary fights in the arena excited little or no condemnation, the prevalence of various other sorts of immorality, at variance with the practice of better days, could not fail to call out different forms of censure. One of these forms of protest was through the _satirical poets_. Of these caustic writers, _Persius_ (34-62) is obscure and of a moderate degree of merit. _Juvenal_ (about 55-135), on the contrary, is spirited and full of force. _Martial_ (43-101), a Spaniard by birth, was the author of numerous short poems of a pithy and pointed character, called _epigrammata_. All these poets, if we make proper discount for the exaggeration of satire, are very instructive as to the manners and morals of their time. _Lucian_ (120-200), who wrote in Greek, the best known of whose works are his "Dialogues," touched with his broad humor a great many of the superstitions and follies of the day. The popular teachers in the imperial time were the _rhetoricians_, analogous to the Greek _Sophists_,--teachers of rhetoric and eloquence,--one of whom, _Quintilian_ (who was born about 40, and died about 118), was the first to receive from the public treasury a regular salary, and had among his pupils the younger _Pliny_ and the two grand-nephews of _Domitian_. The influence of the mania for rhetoric was more and more to impart an artificial character to literature and art. The epic poems of such writers as _Lucan_ and _Statitis_ are to a large extent imitations; although Lucan's principal poem, "Pharsalia," gives evidence of poetic talent. Where there was so little productive genius, it was natural that grammarians and commentators should abound. There was one great writer, the historian _Tacitus_ (about 54-117), who towers above his contemporaries, and in vigor and conciseness has seldom been equaled. The elder _Pliny_ (23-79), whose curiosity to witness the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 cost him his life, was a famous observer and author in natural history. His nephew, the younger _Pliny_, the friend of Trajan, has left to us ten books of "Epistles," which present an agreeable picture of the life and thoughts of a cultivated Roman gentleman. The philosopher _Seneca_, with the exception of _Marcus Aurelius_, the most eminent expositor of the Roman Stoic school, was a voluminous author. No ancient heathen writer has uttered so many thoughts and precepts which bear a resemblance to teachings of the New Testament. The study that nourished most in this period is _Jurisprudence_. It is the classic era of the jurists. Persons versed in the law were preferred by the emperors for high offices. Men who would have been statesmen under the Republic, found a solace and delight in legal studies. Among the most learned jurists of this era, were _Caius Papinian_, and _Ulpian_. Of the Greek writers, one of the most important is _Plutarch_ (about 50-120), whose "Lives," and "Essays" (or _Moralia_), are among the most delightful and instructive of all the works of antiquity. One of the noblest philosophical writers of that or of any other period is the Stoic _Epictetus_ (50-c.120). The two most popular systems of philosophy in the closing days of the Republic and the early period of the Empire, were the Stoic and the Epicurean. The severity of the Stoic doctrine was somewhat softened by its Roman teachers; but the rigorous self-control, the superiority to misfortune, and the contempt of death, which it recommended, found favor with noble Romans in dark days. _Cato_ and other champions of the falling Republic were disciples of this school. Later, New Platonism, of a mystical and contemplative type, secured many adherents. SKEPTICISM.--Long before the fall of the Republic, faith in the old mythology had begun to decline. This change followed upon an intimate contact of the Romans with the Greek religion. It was hastened by the familiarity acquired by the Romans with so great a variety of heathen systems. The decay of morality was attended with a spread of skepticism as regards the supernatural world altogether. In the course of the debate in the Roman Senate on the punishment of the confederates of _Catiline_, _Julius Caesar_ opposed their execution, on the ground that death puts an end to consciousness, and thus to all suffering. It does not appear that in that body, where _Cicero_ and _Cato_ were present, any one disputed this tenet. _Cicero_ in his philosophical essays advocates the doctrine of immortality by arguments, mostly gathered from Greek sources,--arguments some of which are of more and some of less weight. His correspondence, on the contrary, even in times of bereavement, affords no proof that this consoling truth had any practical hold upon his convictions. SUPERSTITION.--The spread of skepticism was attended, as time went on, with a re-action to the other extreme of superstition. Magic and sorcery came into vogue. There was an eagerness to become acquainted with Oriental religious rites, and to pay homage to deities worshiped in the East with mysterious ceremonies. Another tendency strongly manifest was towards what is called _syncretism_, or a mingling of different religious systems. It was hoped that the truth might be found by combining beliefs drawn from many different quarters. This eclectic drift was signally manifest in religion as well as in philosophy. CHAPTER IV. THE EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS: THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY. COMMODUS.--Rome had enjoyed good government for eighty-four years. This was owing to the fact that her sovereigns had been nominated to their office, instead of inheriting it. None of the emperors during this interval had male children. _Marcus Aurelius_ made the mistake of associating with him in power his son _Commodus_, who was eighteen years old when his father died, and reigned alone from 180 to 192. He began his despicable career as sole ruler by buying peace of the _Marcomanni_ and the _Quadi_. He turned out to be a detestable tyrant, who was likewise guilty of the worst personal vices. He was strangled in his bedroom by one of his concubines, _Marcia_, with the assistance of others, all of whom he was intending to kill. At this time the army, where there had been more energy and virtue than in any other class, began to decline in discipline. Society was growing more and more corrupt. It proves the inherent strength of the organization of the Roman Empire, that, amid all the causes of disintegration and decay, it lasted for two centuries longer. I. EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS. We now enter upon a period of military license. The emperors are appointed by the soldiers. The rulers, when the soldiers fall out with them, are slain. In the course of ninety-two years, from 192 to 284, twenty-five emperors, with an average reign of less than four years for each, sat on the throne. Only two reigns exceeded ten years. Ten emperors perished by violence at the hands of the soldiers. A real advantage in this way of making emperors, was, that supreme power might thus devolve on able generals; but another, and a fatal result, was the demoralizing of the armies, by whose favor the rulers of the state were set up and pulled down. TO ALEXANDER SEVERUS (A.D. 222).--The assassins of Commodus, with the assent of the praetorians, made a worthy senator, _Pertinax_, emperor; but his honesty and frugality, and his disposition to maintain discipline among the soldiers, caused them to murder him three months after his accession (193). It is said that they then sold the imperial office at auction to a rich senator, but the leaders of the armies in different regions refused their consent. Of these, _Septimius Severus_ (193-211) made his way to the throne, and put down his rivals. The empire became a military despotism. A garrison of forty thousand troops, the prefect of whom was in power second only to the sovereign, took the place of the old prætorians. _Severus_ was a good general. In a war against the Parthians, he captured Ctesiphon, their capital. _Caracalla_, his son (211-217), was a base tyrant. He was murdered by the prætorian prefect, _Macrinus_, who reigned for a short time (217-218), but perished in consequence of his attempts to reform the discipline of the army. _Heliogabalus_ (218-222) was not more cruel than others had been, but his gross and shameless debauchery was without a precedent. POWER OF THE PROVINCES: DISCORD.--In the reign of _Caracalla_ is placed the Edict which gave the rights of citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. The provinces had been steadily rising in power and influence. At Rome, among officials of the highest grade, as well as in the higher professions, there was a throng of provincials. The provinces were disposed to nominate emperors of their own. It was hard for the central authority to keep under control the frontier armies. To add to these sources of division, there was a growing jealousy between the East and West, owing to a difference in language, ideas, and interests. _Persia_ was soon to threaten the empire on the East, and Gothic barbarians to invade its territories. ALEXANDER SEVERUS: PERSIA.--_Alexander Severus_ (222-235) was a man of pure morals, and sincerely disposed to remedy abuses and to govern well. But the evils were too great for the moderate degree of vigor with which he was endowed. The overthrow of the _Parthian_ kingdom, in 226, created, in the _New Persian Monarchy_, a formidable enemy to Rome. Alexander did little more than check the advance of Persia. In a war against the Germans, he was slain by his own soldiers. TO DECIUS (A.D. 249).--The fierce and brutal _Maximin_, who had excited the soldiers of _Alexander Severus_ to mutiny, reigned from 235 to 238. The Senate roused itself to resist his advance into Italy; and he, and his son with him, were killed in his tent by his soldiers. _Gordian_ (238-244) at least held the frontier against the attacks of the Persians. _Philip_, an Arabian, probably a Roman colonist, after reigning from 244 to 249, was supplanted by _Decius_, whom his rebellious Moesian and Pannonian soldiers raised to power. DECIUS TO CLAUDIUS (A.D. 250-268).--The short reign of _Decius_ was marked by the first general persecution of the Christian Church. During his reign, the _Goths_ (A.D. 250) invaded the empire. They traversed _Dacia_, and crossed the Danube. They ravaged _Moesia_, and even made their way into Thrace. _Decius_ was defeated by them in _Moesia_, and slain. The peril of the empire continually increased. The German tribes on the north, the Goths on the Lower Danube and the Euxine, and Persia in the east, arrayed themselves in hostility. The reigns of _Valerian_ (253-260) and of his associate and successor, _Gallienus_ (260-268), were marked by continuous disaster. Numerous independent rulers--"the thirty tyrants"--established themselves, generally for a very short time, in different regions. In the East, one kingdom, the capital of which was _Palmyra_, and which had for a ruler _Zenobia_, the widow of its founder, lasted for ten years (264-273). The _Goths_ occupied _Dacia_, and from the Cimmerian Bosphorus sent out their predatory expeditions in all directions, plundering cities, including _Athens_ and _Corinth_, and carrying off immense booty to their homes south of the Danube. The _Persians_ conquered _Armenia_, took _Valerian_ prisoner, advanced into Syria, and burned Antioch. TO DIOCLETIAN (A.D. 284).--It would seem as if the Roman empire was on the verge of dissolution. But a series of vigorous emperors--among them _Claudius_ (268-270) and _Aurelian_ (270-275)--quelled rebellion within its borders, and re-established its boundaries; although _Aurelian_ gave up to the Goths _Dacia_, which had been of no benefit to the empire. _Probus_ (276-282) was a prudent as well as valiant ruler. _Carus_ (282-283) invaded Persia, captured _Seleucia_ and _Ctesiphon_, and might, perhaps, have completed the conquest of the country, but for his death. _Numerianus_ (283-284) was the last in the succession of rulers during this period of military control, of which the corruption of the army was the worst result. II. THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY (TO A.D. 375). DIOCLETIAN.--Once more the gigantic and weakened frame of the Roman Empire was invigorated by a change in the character of the chief rulers and in the method of government. _Diocletian_ (284-305), one of a number of energetic emperors who were of Illyrian birth, first stripped the imperial office of its limitations, and converted it into an absolute monarchy. This new system was carried to its completion by _Constantine_. _Diocletian_ took from the Senate what political jurisdiction was left to it. He abolished the difference between the treasury of the state and the private coffers of the prince. The precedence of Rome was taken away by making other great cities to be seats of government. There were to be two emperors under the title of _Augustus_, with two _Caesars_ under them; and thus the empire was divided, for administrative purposes, into four parts. _Maximian_, the second Augustus, was to rule over Italy, Africa, and the islands, with _Milan_ for his residence. _Constantius Chlorus_ had the western provinces, --Spain, Gaul, and Britain. At _Nicomedia_, _Diocletian_, a man of imposing presence and of great talents as a statesman, exercised rule for twenty years with efficiency and success. The new system, if it involved the peril of strife among the regents, led to a more vigilant and efficient government in the different provinces, and provided for a peaceful succession to the throne. But the government came to resemble, in the omnipotence of the emperor, in the obsequious homage paid to him, and in the cringing manners of the court, an Oriental despotism. The old heathen religion was considered by conservative Romans to be an essential part of the imperial system, and indispensable to the unity of the empire. It was this view, in connection with other influences, which moved _Diocletian_, near the close of his reign, in 303, to set on foot a systematic persecution of the Christian Church, by a series of extremely severe and well-contrived measures, through which it was designed to extirpate the new religion. The last great persecution, in the reign of _Decius_, cruel though it had been, did not approach in severity this final effort to exterminate the disciples of the Christian faith, who had now become very numerous. Terrible sufferings were inflicted, but without avail. In 305 Diocletian, partly on account of a serious illness, formally abdicated, and obliged _Maximian_ to do the same. Civil wars followed, until _Constantine_, the son of _Constantius_, gained the supremacy, first as joint ruler with _Licinius_, who governed in the East, and then, after a bloody struggle which began in A.D. 314, as sole master of the empire (A.D. 323). CONSTANTINE (A.D. 306-337).--The career of _Constantine_ was stained by acts of cruelty towards members of his own family. In the closing period of his life, he was less just and humane than in earlier days. The change which had taken place in the imperial system was signally manifest in his removal of the seat of government to CONSTANTINOPLE, which was built up by him, and named in his honor. Placed between Europe and Asia, on a tongue of land where it was protected from assault, it was admirably suited for a metropolis. But the change of capital involved dangers for the western portions of the empire, exposed as they were to the assaults of the barbarians. The changes in the government begun by Diocletian were completed by Constantine. The empire was divided, for purposes of government, into four _prefectures_, each of which was subdivided into _dioceses_. _Constantine_ established, likewise, different classes of nobles, the type of modern systems of nobility. He organized the army afresh, under the _Master of the Horse_ and _Master of the Foot_, each, however, commanding, in action, both infantry and cavalry, and each having under him _dukes_ and _counts_. In short, the system of central and despotic administration, with subordinate rulers, which _Diocletian_ began, was perfected by _Constantine_. Diocletian, in order to fortify the imperial power against the army, had shared his power with "a cabinet of emperors," which his genius enabled him to control. To prevent the breaking up of the empire through the system of viceroys thus created to preserve it, Constantine separated the civil authority from the military as regards the subordinate rulers, while both functions were united in himself. He still further exalted his throne by giving it even more of an Oriental character, by creating a multitude of officials, who were satellites of the sovereign, and by becoming the secular head and guardian of the Christian Church. The arrangements of his court, with its grades of officials, from the chamberlain downwards, were after the Oriental pattern. THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM. PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.--The failure of the grand attempt of _Diocletian_ to exterminate Christianity was an indication of its coming triumph. Its progress had been gradual yet rapid, and, in its earlier stages especially, obscure. Of the labors of most of the apostles we know little. On the approach of the Jewish war (p. 180), the Apostle _John_, and other Christians with him, had repaired to Asia Minor. There, at _Ephesus_, this apostle lived until the reign of _Trajan_, and from that center exerted a wide influence, the traces of which are marked and various. The cities were the principal scenes of early missionary work. They were the "strategic points." In them it was easier for Christian preachers to gain a hearing, and in them they were exempt from the hindrance created by strange dialects. Wherever Christians went, even for purposes of trade or mechanical industry, they carried the seeds of the new doctrine. Even with regard to the churches of _Alexandria_ and _Carthage_, which became so flourishing, and in the case of the church at _Rome_ itself, we can not say how they were first planted. The exultant terms in which the ecclesiastical writers at the end, and even as early as the middle, of the second century speak of the increasing number of the converts, proves that the Christian cause was fast gaining ground. Its adherents were sometimes of the higher class, but mostly from the ranks of the poor. PERSECUTIONS.--Persecution from the side of the heathen began among the populace. Always when fire, tempest, or plague occurred, they were ascribed to the wrath of the heathen gods at the desertion of their altars, and the cry was for Christian blood. But Christianity, from the time of _Trajan_, was an illegal religion. Magistrates might at any time require Christians to do homage to the emperor's bust, or to burn incense to the old divinities. To make a proselyte of a Roman citizen, or to meet in private companies for worship, was unlawful. The persecutions by public authority have been said to be ten; but this number is too small if all of them are reckoned, and too large if only those of wide extent are included. The constancy with which even young women and children sometimes endured the torture, excited wonder in the beholders. Among the more noted martyrs are _Ignatius_, bishop of Antioch (116); _Polycarp_, bishop of Smyrna, who had been a pupil of the Apostle John, and was put to death in 155; and _Cyprian_, the aged bishop of Carthage, one of the leading ecclesiastics of the time, who suffered under _Valerian_ in 258. THE CHURCH UNDER CONSTANTINE.--The accession of Constantine made Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire. His conversion was gradual. More and more he came to rely for support in his conflicts with his rivals upon the God of the Christians. The sign of the cross, which he said that he beheld in the sky, and which led him to make the cross his standard, may have been an optical illusion occasioned partly by his own mental state at the moment, when, after prayer, he was standing at noon-day in the door of his tent. He remained, like many others in that day, not without relics of the old beliefs, as is seen from inscriptions on his coins, and other evidences. His own baptism he deferred until he was near his end, on account of the prevalent idea that all previous guilt is effaced in the baptismal water. The edict of unrestricted toleration was issued from _Milan_ in 312. _Constantine_ did not proscribe heathenism. He forbade immoral rites, and rites connected with magic and sorcery. But, with this exception, heathen worshipers were not molested. But the emperor gave his zealous personal countenance to the Christian cause, and marks of his favor to its adherents. By the privileges and immunities which he granted to the Church and its ministers, he did more than he would have been likely to effect by the use of severity against its adversaries. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.--The early Christian societies were little republics, at first under the supervision of the apostles. Their organization shaped itself partly after the model of the synagogue, and partly from the pattern of the civil communities and the voluntary associations about them. In the apostolic age a body of _elders_ or _bishops_ and a body of _deacons_ in each church guided its affairs, while the members took an active part in the choice of their officers, and in the general direction of ecclesiastical proceedings. In the second century, when we get a distinct view of the churches after the obscure interval that follows the age of the apostles, we find that over the elders is a _bishop_, whose office grows in importance as the churches become larger, as the need of more compact organization is felt, and as the clergy become more and more distinct from the laity. The bishop of the city church acquires jurisdiction over the adjacent country churches. The bishop in the capital of each province comes to exercise a certain superintendence within the province. This is the _metropolitan_ system. More and more the bishops of the great cities, especially _Rome_, _Alexandria_, and _Antioch_, exercise a parallel supervision in larger divisions of the empire. This is the _patriarchal_ system. As early as the closing part of the second century, the catholic or universal church presents itself before us, conceived of as a unity which is made such by the hierarchy of bishops, and by connection with the apostolic sees,--the churches founded by the apostles in person. As the apostles were thought of as having a head in _Peter_, the bishops of Rome, who were looked on as his successors, had accorded to them a precedence over other bishops. The grandeur of Rome, the strength of the church there, its services to other churches in the empire, especially in the West, together with many other considerations additional to its alleged historic relation to Peter and to Paul, gave to the Roman See, as time went on, a growing and acknowledged pre-eminence. The custom of holding synods helped to build up the unity of the Church, and to give power and dignity to its officials. SECTS: THEOLOGY.--The Church from the beginning had to contend with opposing sects. There was a desire to amalgamate the Christian doctrine with other systems. On the _Jewish_ side, the _Ebionites_ clung to the Old Testament ritual observances, a part of them being bitterly hostile to the Apostle Paul, and another part, the _Nazareans_, not sharing this fanatical feeling, but still adhering to the Jewish ceremonies. On the other hand, the _Gnostics_ introduced a dualism, and ascribed to the _Demiurge_--a second deity, either subordinate to the supreme God, or antagonistic to him--the origination of this world and of the Old Testament religion. They made a compound of Christianity, Judaism, and heathen religion and speculation, each Gnostic sect giving to one or the other of these ingredients the preponderance in the strange and often fantastic medley. The controversy with heathenism was prosecuted with the pen. Of the numerous defenses of Christianity, now addressed to heathen rulers and now to its opponents in private stations, the most remarkable work in the first three centuries was the writing of _Origen_--who was the most eminent of the teachers of theology at _Alexandria_--in reply to _Celsus_. Origen, after scholarly labors so vast as to earn for him the title of the _Adamantine_, died in 254, in consequence of his sufferings in the Diocletian persecution. Two defenses of the Christian faith, composed about the middle of the second century by _Justin Martyr_, are specially instructive as to the state of Christian opinion and the customs of the Church. The first great center of theological activity was _Alexandria_, where philosophy was studied in a liberal spirit. In the East, the questions relative to the divinity of Jesus and the relation of the divine to the human nature, engrossed attention. In the West, it was the practical aspects of theology, the doctrine of sin and of the deliverance of the will by grace, which were chiefly discussed. The _Arian_ controversy grew out of the assertion by _Arius_, a presbyter of Alexandria, that Jesus was the first-made of all beings, the instrument of the creation of all other beings, but himself a creature. The leader of the orthodox opposition to this opinion was the famous Alexandrian archdeacon, afterwards bishop, _Athanasius_. This debate it was which led to the assembling, under the auspices of _Constantine_, of the _Council of Nicaea_ (A.D. 325), the first of a series of General Councils, for the adjudication of doctrinal disputes, that were held in this and the following centuries. The Arian doctrine was condemned at Nicaea, and, after a long contest in the period subsequent, was finally determined to be heretical. In the West, the main controversy was that raised by _Pelagius_, respecting the power of the will, the native character of men, and the agency of God in their conversion. In this debate, _Augustine_ (354-430), the most eminent theologian of the West, bishop of _Hippo_ in North Africa, was the renowned champion of the doctrine of _grace_ against what he considered an exaggerated assertion of _free-will_. Pelagianism was condemned in the West, and nominally in the East where views intermediate between the Pelagians and Augustinians commonly prevailed. The most eminent scholar contemporary with Augustine was _Jerome_, who died in 420, the author of the Latin version of the Scriptures, called the _Vulgate_. Preceding Augustine in North Africa, early in the third century, was _Tertullian_, a vigorous and fervid writer, who first made Latin the vehicle of theological discussion; and, a little later, _Cyprian_, whose works relate chiefly to church unity and hierarchical government, of which he was a devoted champion. Late in the second century, _Irenaeus_, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, one of the most eminent ecclesiastics of that day, composed an elaborate work against the Gnostic heresies. _Irenaeus_ had known _Polycarp_, a disciple of John the apostle. CHRISTIAN LIFE.--Passing within the sphere of Christian life, there can be no doubt that Christianity exerted a power, of which there had been no experience before, in reforming the character and conduct of those even who had been addicted to crime and vice. The fraternal feeling of Christians for one another impressed the heathen about them as something new and singularly attractive. It expressed itself in unstinted charity for those in poverty, and in helpfulness for all sorts of distress. The church was a home for the weary and friendless. In the strong reaction against the sensuality of a dissolute society, ascetic tendencies appeared, which, in process of time, issued in monasticism. _Anthony_ of Thebes, born about 250, was one of the earliest and most celebrated of the _Anchorites_, who chose a hermit life, and abjured all the luxuries of life and most of the comforts which belong to social existence. To the _Anchorites_ succeeded the _Caenobites_, societies of monks who dwelt in a common habitation under fixed rules; and these were naturally followed by _confederacies_ of such communities under one organization. The monastic vows were _poverty_, or the renunciation of property; _celibacy_, or abstinence from marriage; and _obedience_ to the conventual superior. Sometimes in the early centuries great evils and abuses sprang up in connection with monastic life. For example, monks might become fanatical and violent. But they furnished numerous examples of sincere piety, and of unselfish and intrepid self-sacrifice for the welfare of others. CHANGES IN WORSHIP.--As the Church grew in numbers and wealth, costly edifices were constructed for worship. The services within them became more elaborate. At length art was called in to adorn the Christian sanctuaries. Sculpture and painting were enlisted in the work of providing aids to devotion. Relics of saints and martyrs were cherished as sacred possessions. Religious observances were multiplied; and the Church, under the Christian emperors, with its array of clergy and of imposing ceremonies, assumed much of the stateliness and visible splendor that had belonged to the heathen system which it had supplanted. LAST DAYS OF HEATHENISM.--When Christianity had become powerful, its disciples forgot the precepts of their Master, and sometimes persecuted the heathen. Christian mobs demolished the old temples. The great temple of _Serapis_ in _Alexandria_ was destroyed, and the statue of the god was broken in pieces. _Theodosius I._ (379-395) made the celebration of heathen rites a capital offense, and confiscated the property by which heathen worship had been supported. Arians, too, he persecuted, but with less harshness. The Eastern emperor, _Justinian_, suppressed the school of New Platonic philosophers at Athens, and banished the teachers (529). Heathenism lingered in remote districts, and was hence called _paganism_, or the religion of rustics. The last adherents of the ancient religion inhabited in the seventh century remote valleys of the Italian islands. The oracles were for ever dumb. The old divinities were never more to be invoked. But it was not by force that heathenism was extirpated. If it had not lost its vitality, it would have survived the penal laws against it. It perished by the expulsive energy of a better faith. CAUSES OF THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.--The causes of the spread and triumph of Christianity lie ultimately in the need which men feel of religion, especially in times of dread and distress, and in the intrinsic excellence which was felt to belong to Christianity. In the first and second centuries the dreary feeling engendered by the hollow skepticism that prevailed was favorable to the Christian cause. There was a void to be filled, and the gospel came to fill it. In the third century, when the progress of Christianity was specially rapid, there was a perceptible revival of religious feeling among the heathen; and this, too, operated to the advantage of the gospel. At least it must have done so in numerous instances. In that century the terrible plagues which desolated the empire, with the sufferings that sprung from wild anarchy and misgovernment, made the church a welcome asylum for the afflicted. In the _first_ place, Christianity was a religion. It was neither a merely speculative nor a merely moral system. It took hold of the supernatural. _Secondly_, it presented to a corrupt society a moral ideal of spotless perfection. _Thirdly_, it offered, in the doctrine of the cross, a welcome solace,--consolation in life, with a sense of reconciliation, and the hope of everlasting good. Other causes, such as _Gibbon_ enumerates, were operative. But these are themselves mostly _effects_ or _aspects_ of the gospel; or they were _auxiliary_, not _principal_, causes. CHRISTIANITY AND LIBERTY.--The founders of Christianity had no thought of becoming the authors of a political revolution. They had a very different purpose in view. To overthrow the existing order of society would have been equally unwise and impracticable. What was needed was a new spirit of justice and of love. The virtues that were called for then were the _passive_ virtues,--gentleness, forbearance, the calm endurance of ills of which there was no present remedy. The Christian spirit, therefore, did not evoke in the disciples of the new faith sentiments of liberty akin to those which had belonged to Greek and Roman heroes. Indirectly, however, Christianity brought into human society the germs of liberty. In the _first_ place, while it enjoined absolute submission to rulers, it made an exception whenever their commands should require disobedience to God's law. This position involved the denial to the state of that absolute supremacy accorded to it by the ancients. The allegiance to the state became a _qualified_ allegiance. _Secondly_, there arose within the state another community, which took into its hands, to a large extent, the regulation of social life. The boundaries of the two authorities might be indistinct, but there was a real division of control between them. It is true that tyranny might arise within the Christian organization itself: still, its very existence planted on the earth a principle of liberty, which was destined ultimately to work out the destruction of all tyranny, whether civil or religious. For the first time the rulers of the Roman world were faced by an opposition, meek yet too inflexible for all their power to overcome. This is the first stage in the history of modern liberty. The "heroic and invincible _Athanasius_" as _Milton_ styles him, boldly confronted _Constantine_ and his successors, and chose to spend twenty years of his life in voluntary or enforced exile rather than bow to their tyrannical decrees. _Ambrose_, the great archbishop of _Milan_, compelled the Emperor _Theodosius_--who, in a fit of anger had ordered a massacre at _Thessalonica_--to do penance before he could be admitted to the communion. Such occurrences indicate that the days of imperial omnipotence, even over unarmed subjects, were past. SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE.--Constantine left his empire to his three unworthy sons. _Constantine_, the eldest, had the Western provinces for his share. He endeavored to wrest Italy from his brother _Constans_, but was slain at _Aquileia_ (340). This event left Constans the master of the entire West. He took up his abode in Gaul, where he was slain by _Magnentius_, the leader of a mutinous body of soldiers (350). _Constantius_ was at _Edessa_, engaged in war against the Persians. He marched westward, and routed Magnentius at _Mursia_, in Pannonia. This rival fled to Gaul, and was there attacked and destroyed. _Gallus_, the cousin of Constantius, was put to death for the murder of one of the emperor's officers (354). _Julian_, the brother of Gallus, was the sole remaining survivor of the family from which the emperor sprung. _Constantius_, under whom the whole empire was now for a few years (357-361) united, made a triumphal visit to Rome. He was the defender of the Arians, but he found it impossible to coerce the Roman Christians into the adoption of his opinion. The orthodox bishop whom he had banished, was restored. _Constantius_ was succeeded by his cousin _Julian_ (361-363), commonly called the _Apostate_. Fascinated by the heathen philosophy, and a secret convert to the old religion, he THE IMPERIAL HOUSE OF CONSTANTINE. CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, _m_. 1, Helena; | +--CONSTANTINE I (the Great) _m_. 1, Minervina; 2, Fausta | +--CONSTANTINE II. | +--CONSTANTIUS II. | | | +--Constantia, | _m_. GRATIAN. | +--CONSTANS. | +--CONSTANTIA, _m_. | 1, Hannibalianus; | 2, GALLUS. | +--HELENA, _m_. JULIAN. 2, Theodora. | +--Constantius, _m_. | 1, Galla; | 2, Basilina. | | | +--GALLUS | | _m_. Constantia, widow of Hannibalianus. | | | +--JULIAN | _m_. Helena, daughter of Constantine I. | +--Constantia, _m_. LICINIUS. proved that its vitality was gone, by his ineffectual exertions to rescue it, and restore its predominance. He was not without merits as a ruler. He looked out for the impartial administration of justice: he revived discipline and a military spirit in the army, and sought to infuse a better spirit into the civil administration. While he avoided cruel persecution, he directed all his personal efforts to the weakening of the Christian cause. Julian led an expedition against the Persians. He sailed down the Euphrates to _Circesium_, and thence proceeded into the interior of Persia. He repulsed the enemy, but was slain while engaged in the pursuit. The soldiers on the field of battle chose one of his officers, _Jovian_ (363-364), who was a Christian, to be his successor. He conducted the retreat of the army. His reign lasted for only seven months. He showed no intolerance either towards Pagans or Arians, but he gave back to Christianity its former position. The army next chose _Valentinian I_. (364-375), the son of a Pannonian warrior, who associated with him, as emperor in the East, his brother _Valens_ (364-378). _Valens_ ruled from Constantinople. _Valentinian_ fixed his court at Milan, and sometimes at Treves. He was an unlettered soldier, but strict and energetic in the government of the state, as well as of the army. His time was mostly spent in conflict with the barbarians on the northern frontiers. He carried forward this contest with vigor on the Rhine and on the Danube. He trained up his son _Gratian_ to be his successor. The great event of the reign of Valens was the irruption of the _Huns_ into Europe, and the consequent invasion of the _Goths_, by whom _Valens_ was defeated and slain in 378. Several emperors followed, until, on the death of _Theodosius I._, (the Great) (395), the Roman Empire was divided. In 476, after successive invasions of barbarians had disorganized the western part of the Empire, the line of phantom emperors at Rome came to an end. The fourth century, in which these invasions--which overthrew the Western Empire, and transferred power to new races--occurred, forms the era of transition from ancient to mediaeval history. LITERATURE.--The general works on Ancient History (p. 16). _On Roman History as a whole_: MERIVALE'S _General History of Rome_ (from 753 B.C. to A.D. 476: 1 vol.); DURUY, _History of Rome,_ etc. (8 vols., 410); Wägner, _Rom_, etc. (3 vols.); Allen, _A Short Story of the Roman People_; FREEMAN, _Outlines of Roman History_. _On the Roman Republic_: MOMMSEN, _The History of Rome_ (4 vols.); LIDDELL, _A History of Rome,_ etc. (1 vol.); IHNE, _The History of Rome_ (Eng. trans., 3 vols.); Michelet, _History of the Roman Republic_ (1 vol., 12mo); Schwegler, _Römishce Geschichte_ (4 vols); How and Leigh, _A History of Rome_; Shuckburgh, _A History of Rome_. _On the Roman Empire:_ MERIVALE, _History of the Romans under the Empire_ (7 vols ); Seeley, _Roman Imperialism_ [three Lectures]; MOMMSEN, _The Provinces_ (5th volume of his History, 1885); Bury, _Students' Roman Empire_; Bury, _Later Roman Empire_ (2 vols.). _On special periods:_ IHNE, _Early Rome_ (1 vol.); T. Arnold, _History of Rome_ (3 vols; reaches into the second Punic war); Long, _The Decline of the Roman Republic_ (5 vols.); R. B. Smith, _Rome and Carthage_; MERIVALE, _The Roman Triumvirates_; T Arnold, _History of the Later Roman Commonwealth_ (2 vols.); GIBBON, _History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (Smith's edition); FINLAY, _A History of Greece from the Conquest of the Romans to the Present Time_ (7 vols.); Dill, _Roman Society_ (5th century). Trollope, _Life of Cicero_ (2 vols.); FORSYTH, _Life of Cicero_ (2 vols.); Middleton's _Life of Cicero_; Froude, _Life of Caesar_ (1 vol.); Boissier, _Ciceron et ses Amis_ (1 vol., 12mo). _Treatises:_ Taylor, _Const, and Polit. History of Rome;_ KUHN, _Verfassung d. Römischen Städte_; GUHL AND KÖNER, _Life of the Greeks and Romans;_ Marquardt, _Handbuch d. Römischen Alterthümer_ (7 vols.); BECKER, _Gallus_ (an archaeological novel); Abbott, _Roman Political Institutions;_ Greenidge, _Roman Public Life;_ Preston and Dodge, _Private Life of the Romans;_ Madvig, _Verfassung und Verwaltung des Röm Staates_ (2 vols.); Lanciani (_Ancient Rome_, and others); Burn, _Rome and the Campagna;_ ZIEGLER, _Das alte Rom;_ Smith and Wace's _Dictionary of Christian Biography;_ Smith and Cheatham's _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities;_ FRIEDLÄNDER, _Sittengeschichte Roms_ (2 vols.); Histories of Roman Literature by Simcox. Cruttwell, SCHMITZ, Teuffel. Mac-Kail, Fowler. _On Early Christianity:_ The Lives of Jesus, by NEANDER, WEISS, Farrar, Edersheim, Andrews. Neander's _Planting and Training of the Church_. Works on the Life of St. Paul, by CONYBEARE AND HOWSON, by Lewins, by Farrar. Fisher's _The Beginnings of Christianity;_ Pressensé, _Early Days of Christianity_. Church Histories of NEANDER, GIESELER, SCHAFF, Robertson, HASE, Kurtz, ALZOG. UHLHORN, _Christian Charity in the Ancient Church;_ Ramsay, _The Church and the Roman Empire, before 170 A.D._ Reber, _History of Ancient Art;_ Wickoff, _Roman Art;_ see Dictionaries, p. 122. PART II. MEDIÆVAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. CHARACTER OF THE MIDDLE AGES.--The middle ages include the long interval between the first general irruption of the Teutonic nations towards the close of the fourth century, to the middle of the fifteenth century, when the modern era, with a distinctive character of its own, began. Two striking features are observed in the mediæval era. First, there was a mingling of the conquering Germanic nations with the peoples previously making up the Roman Empire, and a consequent effect produced upon both. The Teutonic tribes modified essentially the old society. On the other hand, there was a reaction of Roman civilization upon them. The conquered became the teachers and civilizers of the conquerors. Secondly, the Christian Church, which outlived the wreck of the empire, and was almost the sole remaining bond of social unity, not only educated the new nations, but regulated and guided them, to a large extent, in secular as well as religious affairs. Thus out of chaos, Christendom arose, a single homogeneous society of peoples. It was in the middle ages that the pontifical authority reached its full stature. The Holy See exercised the lofty function of arbiter among contending nations, and of leadership in great public movements, like the Crusades. Civil authority and ecclesiastical authority, emperors and popes, were engaged in a long conflict for predominance. Thus there are three elements which form the essential factors in Mediæval History,-the _Barbarian_ element, the _Roman_ element, with its law and civil polity, and with what was left of ancient arts and culture, and the _Christian_, or _Ecclesiastical_, element. As we approach the close of the mediæval era, a signal change occurs. The nations begin to acquire a more defined individuality; the superintendence of the church in civil affairs is more and more renounced or relinquished; there dawns a new era of invention and discovery, of culture and reform. PERIOD I. FROM THE MIGRATIONS OF THE TEUTONIC TRIBES TO THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK RULERS. (A.D. 375-751.) CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE: THE TEUTONIC CONFEDERACIES. GRADUAL OVERTHROW OF THE EMPIRE.--When we speak of the destruction of the Roman Empire by the barbarians, we must not imagine that it was sudden, as by an earthquake. It was gradual. Had the empire not been undermined from within, it would not have been overthrown from without. The Roman armies were recruited by bringing numerous barbarians into the ranks. At length whole tribes were suffered to form permanent settlements within the boundaries of the empire. A "king" with his entire tribe would engage to do military service in exchange for lands. More and more both the wealth and the weakness of Rome were exposed to the gaze of the Germanic nations. Their cupidity was aroused as their power increased. Meantime the barbarians were learning from their employers the art of war, and were gaining soldierly discipline. Their brave warriors rose to places of command. They made and unmade the rulers, and finally became rulers themselves. Another important circumstance is, that most of the Germanic tribes were converts to Christianity before they made their attacks and subverted the throne of the Cæsars. In fine, there was a long preparation for the great onset of the barbarian peoples in the fifth century. CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE.--But the success of the barbarian invasions presupposes an internal decay in the empire. It was one symptom of a conscious decline, that the conquering spirit was chilled, and the policy was adopted of fixing the limits of the Roman dominion at the Rhine and the Danube. Rome now stood on the defensive. The great service of the imperial government, for which it was most valued, was to protect the frontiers. This partly accounts for the consternation of _Augustus_, when, in the forests of Germany, the legions of _Varus_ were destroyed (p. 172). The essential fact is, that Rome became unable to keep up the strength of its armies. _First_, there were lacking the men to fill up the legions. The civil wars had reduced the population in Italy and in other countries. The efforts of _Augustus_ to encourage marriage by bounties proved of little avail. _Secondly_, the class of independent Italian yeomen, which had made up the bone and sinew of the Roman armies, passed away. Slavery supplanted free labor. _Thirdly_, in the third century terrible plagues swept over the empire. In 166 a frightful pestilence broke out, from which, according to _Niebuhr_, the ancient world never recovered. It was only the first in a series of like appalling visitations. _Fourthly_, the death of liberty carried after it a loss of the virtue, the virile energy, by which Rome had won her supremacy. _Fifthly_, the new imperial system, after _Diocletian_, effective as it was for maintaining an orderly administration, drained the resources of the people. The municipal government in each town was put into the hands of _curiales_, or the owners of a certain number of acres. They were made responsible for the taxes, which were levied in a gross amount upon the town. The _fiscus_, or financial administration of the empire, was so managed that the civil offices became an intolerable burden to those who held them. Yet it was a burden from which there was no escape. One result was, that, while slaves were often made _coloni_,--that is, tillers or tenants, sharing with the owner the profits of tillage,--and thus had their condition improved, many freeholders sank to the same grade, which was a kind of serfdom. When to the exhausting taxation by government, there were added the disposition of large proprietors to despoil the poorer class of landholders, and from time to time the predatory incursions of barbarians, the small supply of Roman legionaries is easily accounted for. THREE RACES OF BARBARIANS.--While the empire, as regards the power of self-defense, was sinking, the barbarians were not only profiting by the military skill and experience of the Romans, but were forming military _unions_ among their several tribes. In the East, there was one civilized kingdom, _Persia_, the successor of the Parthian kingdom, but not powerful enough to be a rival,--certainly not in an aggressive contest. But northward and northeast of the Roman boundaries, there stretched "a vague and unexplored waste of barbarism," "a vast, dimly-known chaos of numberless barbarous tongues and savage races." A commotion among these numerous tribes, the uncounted multitudes spreading far into the plain of Central Asia, had begun as early as the days of Julius Caesar. They were made up of three races,--the _Teutons_, or _Germanic_ peoples; eastward of them, the _Slavonians_; and, farther beyond, the Asiatic _Scythians_. The Slavonians, an Aryan branch, like the Teutons, had their abodes in the space between Germany and the Volga. They were a pastoral and an agricultural race, of whose religion little is known. Their incursions and settlements belong to the sixth and seventh centuries, and to the history of the Eastern Empire. TEUTONIC CONFEDERACIES.--Of the confederacies of German tribes, the _Goths_ are first to be mentioned. In the third century they had spread over the immense territory between the Baltic and the Black seas. They were divided into the West Goths (_Visigoths_) and East Goths (_Ostrogoths_). Their force was augmented by the junction of kindred tribes. To the east of them, towards the Don, was a tribe of mixed race, the _Alani_. In the third century the Goths had made their terrible inroads into _Mæsia_ and _Thrace_, and the brave emperor _Decius_ had perished in the combat with them. They had pushed their marauding excursions as far as the coasts of Greece and Ionia. In the middle of the fourth century they were united, with their allied tribes, under the sovereignty of the East Gothic chieftain, _Hermanric_. A second league of Germanic peoples was the _Alemanni_, which included the formidable tribes called by Cæsar the _Suevi_, and who, after various incursions, had established themselves on the Upper Rhine, in what is now Baden, Würtemberg, and north-east in Switzerland, and in the region southward to the summits of the Alps. Their invasion of Italy in 255, when they poured through the passes of the Rhetian Alps, and penetrated as far as _Ravenna_, was repelled by _Aurelian_, afterwards emperor. A third confederacy was that of the _Franks_ (or Freemen) on the Lower Rhine and the Weser. In North Germany, between the Elbe and the Rhine, were the _Saxons_. The _Burgundians_, between the Saxons and the Alemanni, made their way to the same river near _Worms_. East of the Franks and Saxons, were the valiant _Lombards_, who made their way southwards to the center of Europe, and finally to the Danube. The _Frisians_ were situated on the shore of the North Sea and in the adjacent islands. North of the Saxons were the _Danes_ and other peoples of _Scandinavia_,--Teutons all, but a separate branch of the Teutonic household. To bold and warlike tribes, now banded together, such as were the Franks and the Alemanni, the Rhine, with its line of Roman cities and fortresses, could form no permanent barrier. When they crossed it, they might be driven back; but this was only to renew their expeditions at the first favorable moment. The prey which they saw near by, and of which they dreamed in the distance, was too enticing. No more could the Danube fence off the thronging nations; all of whom had heard, and some of whom had beheld, the wealth and luxury of the civilized lands. Beginning at the _Euxine_, and moving westward along the line of the _Danube_ and the _Rhine_, we find, at the end of the fourth century, that the six most prominent names of _Teutonic_ tribes are the _Goths_, _Vandals_, _Burgundians_, _Franks_, _Saxons_, and _Lombards_. Over the vast plains to the south and west of the Caspian are spread the _Huns_, who belong to one branch of the Scythian or Turanian group of nations. HABITS OF THE GERMANS.--We have notices of the Germans from _Julius Caesar_, the most full description of them in the _Germania_ of _Tacitus_. They were tall and robust, and seemed to the Romans, who were of smaller stature, as giants. Tacitus speaks of their "fiercely blue eyes." They lived in huts made of wood, and containing the cattle as well as the family. They tilled the soil, but their favorite employments were war and the chase. Capable of cruelty, they were still of a kindly temper, and fond of feasts and social gatherings, where they were apt to indulge in excessive drinking and in gambling. They were brave, and not without a delicate sense of honor. Family ties were sacred. The women were chaste, and were companions of their husbands, although subject to them. Most of the people were _freemen_, who were land-owners, and carried arms. The nobles were those of higher birth, but with no special privileges. The freemen owned _slaves_, who were either criminals or persons who had lost their freedom in gaming or prisoners of war. There were also _freedmen_ or _leti_, who held land of a superior. Many freedmen lived apart, but many were gathered in villages. The land about a village was originally held in common. Each village had a chief, and each collection of villages, or _hundred_, possessed a chief of high rank; and there was a "king," or head of the tribe. All these chieftains were elected by the freemen at assemblies periodically held. When the duke or general was chosen, he was raised on a shield on the shoulders of the men. The judges in the trial of causes sat, with assessors or jurymen around them, in the open air. But private injuries were avenged by the individual or by his family. One marked characteristic of the Germans was the habit of devoting themselves to the service of a military leader. They paid to him personal allegiance, and followed him in war. The Germans were, above all, distinguished by a strong sense of personal independence. If their mode of living resembled outwardly that of other savage races, yet in their free political life, and in the noble promise of their language even in its rudiments, the comparison does not hold. In their faithfulness, courage, and personal purity, they are emphatically contrasted with the generality of barbarous peoples. RELIGION OF THE GERMANS.--We know more of the Scandinavian religion through the _Eddas_, the Iliad of the Northmen, than of the religion of the Germans; but the two religions were closely allied. Among the chief gods worshiped by the Germans were _Woden_, called "Odin" in the North, the highest divinity, the god of the air and of the sky, the giver of fruits and delighting in battle; _Donar_ (Thor), the god of thunder and of the weather, armed with a hammer or thunderbolt; _Thiu_ (Tyr), a god of war, answering to Mars; _Fro_ (Freyr), god of love; and _Frauwa_ (Freya), his sister. Particular days were set apart for their worship. Their names appear in the names of the days of the week,--Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Sunday is the day of the sun, and Monday the day of the moon. Saturday alone is a name of Latin origin. Among the minor beings in the German mythology were fairies, elves, giants, and dwarfs. There were festivals to the gods. Their images were preserved in groves. Lofty trees were held sacred to divinities. The oak and the red ash were consecrated to _Donar_. Sacrifices, and among them human sacrifices, were offered to the gods. Their will was ascertained by means of the lot, the neighing of wild horses, and the flight of birds. Priests were not without influence, but were not a professional class, and were never dominant. Valiant warriors at death were admitted into Walhalla (the _hall of the slain_), where they sat at banquet with the gods. THE THEODOSIAN IMPERIAL HOUSE THEODOSIUS | +--THEODOSIUS I (the Great), _m._, | 1, Flaccilla; | 2, Galla sister of Valentinian II | | | +--Grantianus | | | +--Pulcheria | | | +--ARCADIUS | | _m._ Eudoxia | | | | | +--THEODOSIUS II | | | _m._ Eudocia | | | | | | | +--Eudoxia | | | | _m._ VALENTINIAN III | | | | | | | +--Flaccilla | | | | | +--Pulcheria | | | _m._ MARCIAN | | | | | +--Three other daughters | | | +--HONORIUS | | _m._ Maria, daughter of Stilicho | | | +--Placidia _m._ | 1, Adolphus; | 2, CONSTANTIUS | | | +--VALENTINIAN III, | | _m._ Eudoxia. | | | | | +--Eudoxia, _m._ | | | 1, Palladius, son of MAXIMUS; | | | 2, Huneric, son of GENSERIC. | | | | | | | +--Ideric | | | | | +--Placidia | | _m._ OLYBRIUS | | | +--Honoria | +--Honorius | +--Serena, | _m._ Stilicho | | | +--Maria | +--Thermantia [From Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History._] CHAPTER II. THE TEUTONIC MIGRATIONS AND KINGDOMS. THE GOTHS: THEODOSIUS I.--Towards the close of the fourth century, when _Valens_ (364-378) was reigning in the East, the _Huns_ moved from their settlements north of the Caspian, defeated the _Alans_, a powerful nation, and, compelling them to enter their service, invaded the empire of the _Ostrogoths_, then ruled by _Hermanric_. The Huns belonged to one branch of the Scythian race. They had migrated in vast numbers from Central Asia. Repulsive in form and visage, with short, thick bodies, and small, fierce eyes, living mostly on horseback or in their wagons, these terrible warriors, with their slings and bone-pointed arrows, struck terror into the nations whom they approached. The Gothic Empire fell. The Ostrogoths submitted, and Hermanric died, it is thought by his own hand. The _Visigoths_ crowded down to the Danube, and implored Valens to give them an asylum upon Roman territory. They had previously been converted to Christianity, mainly by the labors of _Ulphilas_, who had framed for them an alphabet, and translated nearly the whole Bible into their tongue. Fragments of this _Moeso-Gothic_ version are the oldest written monument in the Teutonic languages. Christianity was taught to them by Ulphilas in the Arian type; and this circumstance was very important, since it was the occasion of the spread of _Arianism_ among many other Teutonic peoples. Valens granted their request to cross the Danube, and, under _Fritigern_ and _Alavivus_, to settle in Moesia (376). By the connivance of the officers of Valens, they were allowed to retain their arms. The avarice of corrupt imperial governors provoked them to revolt; and, in the battle of _Adrianople_, Valens was defeated. The house into which the wounded emperor was carried was set on fire, and he perished. _Gratian_, who, since the death of Valentinian I. (375), had been the ruler of the West, summoned the valiant _Theodosius_ from his estate in Spain, to which he had been banished, to sustain the tottering empire. Gratian made him regent in the East. His father had cleared Britain of the Picts and Scots, and restored it to the empire. Under him the son had learned to be a soldier. He had been driven into retirement by court intrigues. He now accomplished, as well as it could be done, the mighty task laid upon him. He checked the progress of the Goths, divided them, incorporated some of them in the army, and dispersed the rest in Thrace, Moesia, and Asia Minor (382). Four years later forty-thousand Ostrogoths were received into the imperial service. Once Rome had conquered the barbarians, and planted its colonies among them; now, after they had proved their power, and gained boldness by victory, it received them within its own borders. The indolence and vice of _Gratian_ produced a revolution in the West. _Maximus_ was proclaimed imperator by the legions of Britain, and Gratian was put to death by his cavalry (383). After sanguinary conflicts, _Theodosius_ obtained, also, supreme power in the West. He gave to orthodoxy, in the strife with Arianism, the supremacy in the East; and, under his auspices, the _General Council of Constantinople_ re-affirmed the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity (381). In the ancient church he had a glory second only to that of Constantine. With the exception of his harsh and inquisitorial laws for the forcible suppression of Arianism and paganism, his legislation was generally wise and beneficent. ARCADIUS: HONORIUS.--Theodosius left the government of the East to his son _Arcadius_, then eighteen years of age, and that of the West to a younger son, _Honorius_. The empire of the East continued ten hundred and fifty-eight years after this division; that of the West, only eighty-one years. The Eastern Empire was defended by the barriers of the Danube and the Balkan mountains, by the strength of Constantinople, together with the care taken to protect it, and by the general tendency of the barbarian invasions westward. Rome, in the course of a half-century, was the object of four terrible attacks,--that of _Alaric_ and the Visigoths; of _Radagaisus_ with the Suevi, Vandals, and Alans; of _Genseric_ with the Vandals; of _Attila_ with the Huns. ALARIC IN ITALY.--The Visigoths made _Alaric_--the head of their most illustrious family, the Balti--their leader. _Honorius_ was controlled by the influence of _Stilicho_, a brave soldier, by birth a Vandal; _Arcadius_ was ruled by a Goth, _Rufinus_, a cunning and faithless diplomatist. Alaric and his followers were enraged at the withholding of the pay which was due to them yearly from _Arcadius_. _Rufinus_, in order to keep up his sway, and out of hostility to _Stilicho_, arranged that they should invade _Eastern Illyricum_, a province on which each of the emperors had claims, and which he feared that Stilicho would seize. They ravaged Thrace and Macedonia, passed through the undefended strait of Thermopylae, spared Athens, but devastated the rest of Greece. The only protector of the empire now was _Stilicho_, to whom Theodosius had committed the care of his two sons, and whose power was exercised in the West. He caused the perfidious _Rufinus_ to be put to death by _Gainas_, one of the Gothic allies of Arcadius. The place of the minister was taken by _Eutropius_, an Armenian who had been a slave. _Stilicho_ fought the Goths in two campaigns, but, perhaps from policy, suffered them to escape by the Strait of _Naupactus_ (_Lepanto_). To prevent further ravages, Arcadius had no alternative but to appoint _Alaric_ master-general or duke of Illyricum. This obliged _Stilicho_ to retire. Raised upon the shield, and thus made king by his followers, Alaric led them to the conquest of Italy. _Honorius_ fled for refuge from Milan to the impregnable fortress of _Ravenna_. Stilicho came to his relief, and defeated the Visigoths at _Pollentia_ (402). But Honorius copied the example of Arcadius, made Alaric a general, and gave him the commission to conquer Illyricum for the Western Empire. After his defeat, he was moving against Rome with his cavalry, when his retreat was purchased by a pension. It was when Honorius was celebrating his triumph at Rome that a monk named _Telemachus_ leaped into the arena to separate the gladiators. He was stoned to death by the spectators, but the result of his self-devotion was an edict putting a final stop to the gladiatorial shows. The emperor now fixed his residence, which had been at Milan, at _Ravenna_, a city that was covered on the land side by a wide and impassable morass, over which was an artificial causeway, easily destroyed in case it could not be defended. It had served him as an asylum during the invasion of Alaric. RADAGAISUS.--The empire was not long left in peace. _Alaric_ was a Christian, and partially civilized. _Radagaisus_ was a Goth, but a heathen and a barbarian. The _Suevi_ under his command, took their course southward from the neighborhood of the Baltic, and, drawing after them the _Burgundians, Vandals_, and _Alans_,--tribes which began to be alarmed by the hordes of _Huns_ that were gathering behind them,--advanced to the pillage of the empire. Leaving the bulk of their companions on the borders of the Rhine, two hundred thousand of them crossed the Alps, and made their way as far as _Florence_. _Stilicho_ once more saved Rome and the empire by forcing them back into the Apennines, where most of them perished from famine. _Radagaisus_ surrendered, and was beheaded. The news of this disaster moved the host which had been left behind, joined by the remainder of the army of Radagaisus, to make an attack upon _Gaul_. Despite the resistance of the Ripuarian Franks, to whom Rome had committed the defense of the Rhine, they crossed that river on the last day of the year 406. For two years Gaul was a prey to their ravages, until the Suevi, the Alans, and the Vandals, sought for fresh booty on the south of the Pyrenees (409). In Gaul they "destroyed the cities, ravaged the fields, and drove before them in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars." Brief as was this period of devastation, it marks the severance of _Gaul_ from the empire. ALARIC AGAIN IN ITALY.--_Stilicho_ had kept up friendly relations with _Alaric_, and had retained in Italy thirty thousand barbarians in the pay of the empire. The brave general became an object of suspicion to _Honorius_, who caused him to be assassinated, and the wives and children of the barbarian troops to be massacred. The men fled to _Alaric_. He came back with them to avenge them. He appeared under the walls of Rome. "It was more than six hundred years since a foreign enemy had been there, and Hannibal had advanced so far, only to retreat." When the envoys of the Senate represented to Alaric how numerous was the population, he answered, "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed." But he consented to accept an enormous ransom, and retired to winter quarters in Tuscany. The court at Ravenna refused to assign lands to the Visigoths for a permanent settlement in Northern Italy. Alaric demanded the post of master-general of the Western armies. Once more he advanced to Rome, seized the "Port" of _Ostia_, and compelled the Senate to appoint _Attalus_, the prefect of the city, emperor. He besieged _Ravenna_ without effect, quarreled with Attalus, and deposed him, and for the third time marched upon Rome. Slaves within the city opened the Salarian gate to their countrymen, and on the 24th of August, 410, the sack of the city began. To add to the horrors of the scene, a terrific thunderstorm was raging. For three days Rome was given up to pillage. Only the Christian temples were respected, which were crowded by those who sought within them an asylum. Rome had been the center of Paganism. The scattering and destruction of its patrician families was the ruin of the old religion. Alaric did not long survive his victory. He died at _Consentia_ in _Bruttium_. He was buried under the little river _Basentius_, which was turned out of its course while the sepulcher was constructing, and then restored to its former channel. The slaves employed in the work were put to death, that the place of his burial might remain a secret (410). ATHAULF: WALLIA.--_Athaulf_ (called Adolphus), the brother and successor of Alaric, was an admirer of the empire. He enlisted in the service of _Honorius_, and married his sister, _Placidia_, who was in the hands of the Goths, either as a captive or as a hostage. He put down usurpers in the south of Gaul who had set themselves up as emperors, and entered _Spain_, in order to drive out the barbarians from that country. But he was assassinated (415). His successor, _Wallia_, carried forward his plans, in the name of Honorius, against the Alans, the Suevi, and the Vandals. He partly exterminated the Alans, chased the Suevi into the mountains on the north-west, and the Vandals into the district called after them, _Andalusia_. THREE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS.--The kingdom of the Suevi thus established (419), under the kings reigning from 438 to 455 conquered _Lusitania_, and would have subdued all Spain had they not been checked by the _Visigoths_. As a reward for their services, the latter received from Honorius, _Aquitaine_ in Gaul, as far as the Loire and the Rhone, with _Toulouse_ for their capital. They conquered the _Suevi_ in 456, and in 585 subjugated them; in 507 the Franks had driven them out of Gaul. Early in the fifth century the _Burgundian kingdom_ grew up in South-eastern Gaul. At the end of that century the Rhone was a Burgundian river. _Lyons_ and _Vienne_ were Burgundian cities. Thus in the first twenty years of the fifth century there arose _three_ barbarian kingdoms. Of these, that of the _Suevi_ soon vanished (585), being absorbed by the Visigoths; that of the _Burgundians_ continued until 534; while that of the _Visigoths_ in Spain lasted until the conquest by the Arabs in 711. CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE VANDALS.--_Honorius_ died in 423. He had shown himself a zealous defender of the Church against heresy, and was the author of edicts for the suppression of heathenism, and for the destruction of heathen temples and idols. But he had proved himself inefficient in the defense of the empire. His nephew _Valentinian III.,_ the son of _Placidia_ and of the general _Constantius_, whom she had married in 417, succeeded him; but he was only six years old, and for twenty-five years the government was carried on in his name by his unworthy mother. She had two able generals, _Aëtius_ and _Boniface_, whose discord was fatal in its effects. At the same time in the East, the government was managed by _Pulcheria_ for her brother, _Theodosius II.,_ who had succeeded _Arcadias_ in 408. _Aëtius_, who was a Hun, by insidious arts persuaded Placidia to recall _Boniface_, who was governor of Africa, at the same time that he advised Boniface to disobey the order which he represented as a sentence of death. Boniface sent to _Gonderic_, king of the Vandals in Spain,--who, after the retreat of the Visigoths, were strong in that country,--an offer of an alliance. _Genseric_, the Vandal leader, the brother and successor of _Gonderic_, landed in Africa in 429 with fifty thousand men. Too late the treachery of Aëtius was explained to Boniface. Genseric, with his allies, tribes of nomad Moors, defeated him in a bloody battle, and besieged _Hippo_ for fourteen months. _Augustine_, the bishop of Hippo, animated the courage of its defenders until his death in 430, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Boniface was again defeated, and Hippo was taken. The Vandals pushed on their conquest, but eight years passed before _Carthage_ was reduced (439). _Valentinian_ had recognized by treaty the kingdom of the Vandals. _Genseric_ was characterized by genius and energy as well as by cruelty and avarice. He built up a navy, and made himself master of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. He was able to defy Constantinople, on account of his control of the Mediterranean. At the same time he entered into relations with the barbarians in the north, in order that Aëtius, who endeavored to bring in some degree of order and obedience in the empire, might be checked and restrained on all sides. The Vandals were Arians, and made full use of the difference in faith as a motive for plundering and maltreating the orthodox Christians in Africa, whom their arms had subdued. ATTILA: CHALONS.--The enemy whom _Genseric_ invoked to make a diversion in his favor against the combined rulers of the East and of the West, was _Attila_. For a half-century the _Huns_ had halted, in their migration, in the center of Europe, and held under their sway the Ostrogoths, the Gepids, the Marcomanni, and other tribes. The empire of Attila extended from the Baltic to the north of the Danube, and as far east as the Volga. His name inspired terror wherever it was heard. He was styled "the scourge of God." The "sword of Mars"--the point of an ancient sword which, it was said, was discovered by supernatural means, and was presented to him--was deemed the symbol of his right to the dominion of the world. Yet, notwithstanding his fierce visage and haughty mien, he was an indulgent ruler of his own people, and not without pity and other generous traits. Such was the dread of him that it was said that no blade of grass grew on the path which his armies had traversed. First, he attacked _Theodosius II._ in the East, to force him to recall the troops which he had sent against _Genseric_. He crossed the Danube, destroyed seventy cities, and forced the Eastern emperor not only to pay a tribute heavier than he had paid before, but also to cede to the Huns the right bank of the river. Theodosius failed in a treacherous attempt to assassinate him through Attila's ambassador, _Edecon_, whom he had bribed. Attila discovered the plot, but pardoned with disdain the ambassadors of the emperor who went to him in his wooden palace in Pannonia. He contented himself with reproaching Theodosius with "conspiring, like a perfidious slave, against the life of his master." Regarding Constantinople as impregnable, he turned to the West. He demanded of the Western emperor the half of his states; and, moving to the Rhine with six hundred thousand barbarians, he crossed that river and the Moselle, advanced on his devastating path into the heart of _Gaul_, crossed the Seine, and laid siege to _Orleans_. Everywhere the inhabitants fled before him. The courage of the people in Orleans was sustained by their bishop, who at length, as the city was just falling into the hands of the assailants, saw a cloud of dust, and cried, "It is the help of God." It was _Aëtius_, who, on the death of Boniface, had thought it prudent to fly to the _Huns_, had come back to Italy at the head of sixty thousand men, obtained forgiveness of _Placidia_, and been made master-general of her forces. He had united to the Roman troops the barbarians who had occupied Gaul, the Visigoths under Theodoric, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Ripuarian and the Salian Franks. On the Catalaunian fields, a vast plain near _Chalons_, whither _Attila_ now retreated to find room for the effective use of his cavalry, the two multitudinous armies, each composed of a motley collection of nations, met. It was, like the conflict at Marathon, one of the decisive battles of history. It was to determine whether the Aryan or the Scythian was to be supreme in Europe. The battle-field was strewn, it was said, with the bodies of a hundred and sixty thousand men,--an exaggeration indicating that the carnage was too great to be estimated. Attila was worsted. He encircled his camp with a rampart of wagons; and in the morning the victors saw him standing on the top of a mound composed of the trappings of horsemen, which was to serve as his funeral-pile, with torch-bearers at hand ready to light it in case of defeat. Aëtius was weakened by the withdrawal of the _Visigoths_: the allies did not venture to attack the lion standing thus at bay, but suffered him to return to Germany (451). ATTILA IN ITALY.--The next year _Attila_ invaded Upper Italy. He destroyed _Aquileia_, the inhabitants of which fled to the lagoons of the Adriatic, where their descendants founded _Venice_. Padua, Verona, and other cities were reduced to ashes. At Milan he saw a painting which represented the emperor on his throne, and the chiefs of the Huns prostrate before him. He ordered a picture to be painted in which the king of the Huns sat on the throne, and the emperor was at his feet. The Italians were without the means of defense. _Leo I._ (Leo the Great), bishop of Rome, at the risk of his life accompanied the emperor's ambassadors to Attila's camp. Their persuasions, with rich gifts and the promise of a tribute, availed. The army of Attila was weakened by sickness, and _Aëtius_ was approaching. The king of the Huns decided to retire to his forests. The apparition of the two apostles, _Peter_ and _Paul_, threatening the barbarian with instant death if he did not comply with the prayer of their successor, is the subject of one of the paintings of _Raphael_. Some months after he left Italy _Attila_ died at the royal village near the Danube, probably from the bursting of an artery during the night (453). The nations which he had subjugated regained their freedom. The chiefs of the Huns contended for the crown in conflicts which dissipated their strength. The expeditions of Attila were like a violent tempest,-- destructive for the moment, the traces of which soon disappear. About the name of _Attila_, there gathered cycles of traditions, Gallo-Roman or Italian, East German or Gothic, West German and Scandinavian, and Hungarian. Such traditions in Germany formed, later, the germ of the national epic, the _Nibelungen-lied_. They testify to the powerful impression which the hero of the Huns made on the memory and imagination of the different nations. GENSERIC.--_Attila_ did not see Rome; but _Genseric_, his ally, visited it with fire and sword (455). The emperor was _Petronius Maximus_, a senator, who had slain _Valentinian III._ as the penalty for a mortal offense. The weakness of Maximus as a ruler caused him to be destroyed by the populace. _Eudoxia_, the widow of Valentinian, whom Maximus had compelled to marry the author of her husband's death, had secretly implored the aid of the king of the Vandals. Once more _Leo_ showed his fearless spirit by going into the camp of the Vandal king, and interceding for Rome. He only succeeded, however, in mitigating to a limited extent the horrors that attended the pillage of the city by the fierce and greedy soldiers, the Vandals and Moors, who followed _Genseric_, For fourteen days (June 15-29, 455) Rome was given up to carnage and robbery. The conqueror carried off every thing of value that was capable of being transported. _Eudoxia_ was rudely stripped of her jewels, and with her two daughters, descendants of the great Theodosius, was conveyed away with the conqueror to Carthage. For twenty years longer _Genseric_ ruled over the Mediterranean in spite of the hostility of both empires. An expedition sent against him at the instigation of _Ricimer_, the Sueve, by the Eastern emperor _Leo_, was ill commanded by _Basiliscus_, and failed. But after the Vandal king died (477), his kingdom was torn by civil and religious disorders, and by the revolts of the Moors, and, fifty-seven years after the death of its founder, was conquered by the general of the Eastern Empire. FALL OF ROME: ODOACER.--After the death of _Maximus, Avitus_ was appointed emperor by the king of the Visigoths in Gaul. The barbarians hesitated to assume the purple themselves, but they determined on whom it should be bestowed. Of the emperors that succeeded, _Majorian_ (457-461)--who was raised to the throne by _Ricimer_, military leader of the German mercenaries in the Roman army--presents an instance of a worthy character in a corrupt time. At last another leader of mercenaries (_Orestes_, a Pannonian) made his son emperor,--a boy six years old, called _Romulus Augustulus_ (475). _Odoacer_, who commanded the Heruli, Rugii, and other federated tribes,--mercenaries to whom Orestes refused to grant a third part of the lands of Italy,--made himself ruler of that country. The Senate of Rome, in pursuance of his wishes, in an address to the Eastern emperor _Zeno_, declared that an emperor in the West was no longer necessary, and asked him to make Odoacer _patrician_, and prefect of the diocese of Italy. It was in this character--not as king, but in nominal subordination to _Zeno_, the head of the united Roman Empire--that Odoacer governed (476). For more than a half-century people had been accustomed to see the barbarians exercise supreme control, so that the extinguishment of the Western Empire was an event less marked in their eyes than it seemed to the view of subsequent ages. OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM OF THEODORIC.--When _Odoacer_ had reigned twelve years, _Theodoric_, king of the Ostrogoths in _Moesia_,--who in his youth had lived at the court of Constantinople, had defended the Eastern emperor, but had been provoked to hostility to him,--was authorized by _Zeno_ to move upon Italy. A host consisting of two hundred thousand fighting-men, together with their families and goods, followed the Gothic leader. Defeated at _Verona_ (489), Odoacer was forced to make a treaty for a division of power, and to surrender _Ravenna_, where he had taken refuge; but very soon, in the tumult of a banquet, he was slain by Theodoric's own hand, either from fear of a rival, or because he suspected that Odoacer was plotting against him. From this time the long reign of Theodoric was one of justice and of peace. More by negotiation than by war, he extended his dominion so that it embraced Illyricum, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhoetia, and, in the West, Southeastern Gaul (Provence). The Bavarians paid him tribute; the Alemanni invoked his assistance against the Franks, against whom he afforded succor to the Goths of Aquitaine. In his administration he showed reverence for the old imperial system, and for its laws and institutions. He fostered agriculture, manufactures, and trade. Although he could not write, he encouraged learning; and a learned Roman, _Cassiodorus_, he appointed to high offices. He permitted the Goths alone to bear arms. He caused to be compiled from the Roman law a collection of statutes for the Goths and for his new subjects, and established mixed tribunals for causes in which both were parties. Cassiodorus ascribes to Theodoric the words, "Let other kings seek to procure booty, or the downfall of conquered cities: our purpose is, with God's help, so to conquer that our subjects shall lament that they have too late come under our rule." He did what he could to promote peace among other barbarian nations. The prosperity of Italy, and the increase of its population, were a proof of the good government which it enjoyed. An Arian, he respected the Catholics, confirmed the immunities enjoyed by the churches, and generally allowed the Romans to elect their own bishop. He also protected the Jews. The persecution of the Arians in the East (524) by _Justin I._, awakened in his mind the belief that a conspiracy was forming against him. He accused _Boethius_ of being a partner in it, and adjudged him to death (524). While in prison at Pavia, this cultivated man, whom Theodoric had highly esteemed, composed a work on the "Consolations of Philosophy," which has made his name immortal in literature. The course of Theodoric at this time drew upon him the severe displeasure of his orthodox subjects. Soon after his death (526) his ashes were taken out of the tomb, and scattered to the winds. Hence nothing remains of his sepulcher at Ravenna but his empty mausoleum. Before the close of the century, as we shall see, another German tribe, the _Lombards_, founded a powerful state in Italy, which continued for more than two hundred years (568-774). THE FRANKS: CLOVIS.--When _Clovis_ (481-511), a warlike and ambitious chief of the Merovingian family of princes, became king of the Franks, they numbered but a few thousand warriors. The remnant of the Roman dominion on the Seine and the Loire he annexed, after having put to death _Syagrius_, the Roman governor, who was delivered up to him by the _Visigoths_. He made _Soissons_, and then _Paris_, the seat of his authority. A Salian Frank himself, he joined to himself the Ripuarian Franks on the Lower Rhine, and made war on the _Alemanni_, who were planted on both sides of the river. Before a battle (formerly thought to have been at _Tolbiac_), he vowed, that, if the victory were given him, he would worship the God of the Christians, of whom his wife _Clotilde_ was one. Clotilde was the niece of the Burgundian king, who was an Arian; but she was orthodox. The victory was won. Clovis, with three thousand of his nobles, was baptized by Remigius (_St. Remi_), Archbishop of Rheims. Hearing a sermon on the crucifixion, Clovis exclaimed, that, if he and his faithful Franks had been there, vengeance would have been taken on the Jews. He was a barbarian still, and the new faith imposed little restraint on his ambition and cruelty. But his conversion was an event of the highest importance. The Gallic church and clergy lent him their devoted support. The Franks were destined to become the dominant barbarian people. It was now settled that power was to be in the hands of Catholic--as distinguished from heretical Arian--Christianity. Clovis forced _Gundobald_, the Burgundian king, to become tributary, and to embrace the Catholic faith. He extended his kingdom to the Rhone on the east, and on the south (507-511), confined the Visigoths in Gaul to the strip of territory called _Septimania_, which they held for three centuries longer. _Brittany_ alone remained independent under its king. Clovis was hailed as the "most Christian king" and the second Constantine, and was made patrician and consul by the Eastern emperor _Anastasius_, in which titles, with their insignia, he rejoiced. In the closing part of his life he took care to destroy other Frank chieftains who might possibly undertake to dispute or divide with him his sovereignty. DISTRIBUTION OF TRIBES.--If we look at the map at the close of the fifth century, we find that all the western dominions of Rome are subject to Teutonic kings. The _Franks_, still retaining Western and Central Germany, rule in Northern Gaul, and are soon to extend their sway to the Pyrenees, and to conquer Burgundy. The _West Goths_ are the masters in Spain, and still hold Aquitaine, the most of which, however, is soon to be lost to the Franks. Italy and the lands north of the Alps and the Adriatic form the _East Gothic_ kingdom of _Theodoric_. Africa is governed by the Arian Vandals. To the north of the Franks, the tribes of Germany, which were never subject to Rome, have already begun their conquests in Britain. With the exception of Britain, which is falling under the power of the _Saxons_, and Africa, these countries are still nominally parts of the Roman Empire, of which Constantinople is the capital. In the east, the boundaries of the empire, notwithstanding the aggressions and insults which it has suffered, are but little altered. THE MEROVINGIANS.--The dominion of _Clovis_ was partitioned among his four sons (511). _Theodoric_, the eldest, in Rheims, ruled the Eastern Franks, in what soon after this time began to be called _Austrasia_, on both banks of the Rhine. _Neustria_, or the rest of the kingdom north of the Loire, was governed in parts by the other three. Theodoric gained by conquest the land of the Thuringians, whose king, _Hermanfrid_, he treacherously destroyed. A part of this land was given to the Saxons. The history of the Franks for half a century lacks unity. The several rulers rarely acted in concert. They made expeditions against the Burgundians, the Visigoths, and the Ostrogoths. Twice they attacked the _Burgundians_. The last time, in 534, they conquered them, deprived them of their national kings, and forced them to become Catholic. In 531 they made war on the Visigoths to avenge the wrongs inflicted on _Clotilde_, a princess of their family who suffered indignities at the hands of the Arian king _Amalaric_. They crossed the Pyrenees, and brought away Clotilde. A second division of the kingdom was made in 561 among the grandsons of Clovis, and consummated in 567. _Austrasia_, having Rheims for its capital, had a population chiefly German. _Neustria_, where the Gallo-Roman manners were adopted, had Soissons for its capital; and _Burgundy_ had its capital at Orleans. The population in both these last dominions was more predominantly Romano-Celtic, or "Romance." Family contests, and wars full of horrors,--in which the tragic feud of two women, _Brunhilde_ of Austrasia, a daughter of Athanagild, king of the Visigoths, and _Fredegunde_ of Neustria, played a prominent part,--ensued. In 613 _Clotaire II_. of Neustria united the entire kingdom. Brunhilde was captured, and put to death in a barbarous manner. The son of Clotaire, _Dagobert_, was a worthless king. The Frank sovereigns of the royal line are inefficient, and the virtual sovereignty is in the hands of the "Mayors of the Palace," the officers whose function it was to superintend the royal household, and who afterwards were leaders of the feudal retainers. The family of the _Pipins_, who were of pure German extraction, acquired the hereditary right to this office, first in Austrasia and later in Neustria. The descendants of _Pipin of Heristal_, as dukes of the Franks, had regal power, while the title of king was left to the Merovingian princes. The race of Pipin was afterwards called _Carolingians_, or _Karlings_. The preponderance of power at first had been with Neustria, but it shifted to the ruder and more energetic Austrasians. The battle of _Testry_, in which _Pipin_ of Heristal at their head overcame the Neustrians, determined the supremacy of Germany over France (687). His son and successor, _Charles Martel_ (715-741), made himself sole "Duke of the Franks;" and _Pipin the Short_ (741-768), the son of Charles Martel, became king, supplanting the Merovingian line (752). SAXON CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.--In the fourth century, when the power of Rome was declining, the Picts and Scots from the North began to make incursions into the Roman province of Britain. At the same time Teutonic tribes from the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe, began to land as marauders upon the coast. _Honorius_ withdrew the Roman troops from the island in 411; and it was conquered by these invading tribes, especially the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They became one people, called _Anglo-Saxons_, Angles or _English_. They were fierce barbarians, who drove the Celts whom they did not kill or enslave--and whom they called _Welsh_, or strangers--into Wales and Cornwall. They formed kingdoms, the first of which, Kent, was the result of the coming of _Hengist_ and _Horsa_, whom _Vortigern_, the native prince, had invited to help him against the Picts (449). There were seven of these Saxon kingdoms (the _Heptarchy_), not all of which were at any one time regular communities. They were almost constantly at war with one another and with the natives. They had a king elected from the royal family. Freemen were either _Earls_ or _Churls_, the "gentle" or the "simple." The churl was attached to some one lord whom he followed in war. The _thanes_ were those who devoted themselves to the service of the king or some other great man. The thanes of the king became gentlemen and nobles. There were _thralls_, or slaves, either prisoners in war, or made slaves for debt or for crime. Connected with the king was a sort of Parliament, called the _Witenagemôt_, or Meeting of the Wise, composed originally of all freemen, and then of the great men, the _Ealdormen_, the king's thanes. After the Saxons were converted, the bishops and abbots belonged to it. In minor affairs, the "mark," or township, governed itself. CONVERSION OF THE SAXONS--The seven kingdoms, in the ninth century (828), were united under _Egbert_, who became king of Wessex in 802. He was called the king of England. Towards the Celtic Christians the heathen Saxons were hostile. The conversion of the Saxons was due to the labors of _Augustine_ and forty monks, whom _Gregory the Great_ (Gregory I.) sent to the island as missionaries in 597. Their first conversions were in Kent, whose king, _Ethelbert_, had married _Bertha_, the daughter of a Frankish king. Augustine, who had great success, became the first archbishop of _Canterbury_, and he consecrated a bishop of London. During the seventh century the other Saxon kingdoms were gradually converted. _York_ became a seat of a second archbishopric. While Britain had been cut off from close relations with the continent, the Celtic Church there had failed to keep pace with the changes of rite and polity which had taken place among Christians beyond the channel. The consequence was a strife on these points between the converted Saxons, who were devoted to the holy see, and the "Culdees" or Old British Christians. CONVERSION OF THE IRISH.--About the middle of the fifth century the gospel had been planted in Ireland, mainly by the labors of _Patrick_, who had been carried to that country from Scotland by pirates when he was a boy, and had returned to it as a missionary. The cloisters, and the schools connected with them, which he founded, flourished, became nurseries of study as well as of piety, and sent out missionaries to other countries of Western Europe. CHARACTER OF THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS.--The Teutonic tribe was made up of freemen and of their dependents. The rights of freemen, such as the right to vote, continued; but these were modified as differences of rank and wealth arose. Their leaders in peace and war were the duke (_dux_), the count (_comes_, or _graf_), and the _herzog_ (duke of higher grade) over larger provinces. The companions of the king and the local chiefs grew into a nobility. Once or twice in the year there was a gathering of the freemen in assemblies, to decree war or to sanction laws. Land was partly held in common, partly by individuals either as tenants of the community, or as individual owners. The soil was shared in proportions by the conquerors and the conquered. THE CHURCH.--The Germanic tribes were generally more or less acquainted with the Romans, and were Christians by profession. They were subject to the influences of religion, of law, and of language, in the countries where they settled. Power passed from the Empire to the Church. The Church was strong in its moral force. Its bishops commanded the respect of the barbarians. They were moral and social leaders. In the period of darkness and of tempest, the voices of the Christian clergy were heard in accents of fearless rebuke and of tender consolation. In the cities of Italy and Gaul, the bishops, at the call of the people, informally took the first place in civil affairs. Remarkable men arose in the Church, who were conspicuous as ambassadors and peace-makers, as intercessors for the suffering, and courageous protectors of the injured. Such a man was _Leo the Great._ The barbarians were awed by the kingdom of righteousness, which, without exerting force, opposed to force and passion an undaunted front. There was often a conflict between their love of power and passionate impatience of control, and their reverence for the priest and for the gospel. They could not avoid feeling in some measure the softening and restraining influence of Christian teaching, and learning the lessons of the cross. Socially, the Church, as such, "was always on the side of peace, on the side of industry, on the side of purity, on the side of liberty for the slave, and protection for the oppressed. The monasteries were the only keepers of literary tradition: they were, still more, great agricultural colonies, clearing the wastes, and setting the example of improvement. They were the only seats of human labor which could hope to be spared in those lands of perpetual war." Nevertheless, the religious condition of the West, the condition of the Church and of the clergy, could not fail to be powerfully affected for the worse by the influx of barbarism, and the corrupting influence of the barbarian rulers. A great deterioration in the Church and in its ministry ensued after the first generation following the Germanic conquests passed away. This demoralization was more among the secular clergy than the monastic. The "History of the Franks," by _Gregory of Tours_ (540-594), is an instructive memorial of the times. He was himself an intrepid prelate, who did not quail before _Chilperic I_. and _Fredegunde_, but braved their wrath. Chilperic proposed to establish by his authority a new view of the Trinity of his own devising, but was resisted by Gregory, who told him that no one but a lunatic would embrace such an opinion. A still more crude reform of the alphabet, which the Frankish king contrived, and proposed to put in force by having existing books rewritten, Gregory effectually resisted. ROMAN LAW.--The barbarians were profoundly impressed by the system of Roman law. This they recognized as the rule for the Roman population in the different countries. More and more they incorporated its exact provisions into their own codes. Among the _West Goths_ in _Spain_ the two elements were ultimately fused into one body of laws (642-701). Under the _Franks_, the Roman municipal system was not extinguished; the Teutonic count or bishop standing in the room of the Roman president or consular, and a more popular body taking the place of the restricted municipality. The Roman civil polity, with its definite enactments for every relation in life and every exigency, was always at hand, and exercised an increasing control. STATE OF LEARNING.--The Latin language--the rustic Latin of the lower classes--was spoken by the conquered peoples. Latin was the language of the Church and of the Law. The consequence was, that the two languages, the tongue of the conquerors and of the Roman subjects, existed side by side in an unconscious struggle with one another. In the west and south of Europe, the victory was on the side of the Latin. The languages of these countries, the "Latin nations," grew out of the rustic dialects spoken in Roman times. In these nations the result of the mixture of the races was the final predominance of the Latin element in the civilization. In Gaul, the Franks yielded to Latin influences: _France_ was the product. With the fall of the empire, classical culture died out. The cathedral and cloister schools preserved the records of literature. The study of language, and the mental discrimination and refinement which spring from it and from literary discipline, passed away. Centuries of comparative illiteracy--dark centuries--followed. Yet the monks were often active in their own rude style of composition; and among them were not only good men, but men of eminent natural abilities, who were unconsciously paving the way for a better time. SAXON ENGLAND.--In England, by the Saxon conquest, a purely Teutonic kingdom was built up. The _Saxons_ were heathen, who had never felt the civilizing influence of Rome. The traces of the earlier state of things in the province which had long been sundered from the empire, they swept away in the progress of their conquest. CHAPTER III. THE EASTERN EMPIRE. RELIGIOUS DISPUTES.--While the West was beginning to recover from the shock of the barbarian invasions, society in the Eastern Empire was growing more enervated and corrupt. For a considerable period the Byzantine government was managed by the influence of women. Thus _Theodosius II_., the successor of Arcadius (408-450), was governed during his whole reign by his sister _Pulcheria_. In the East, there was an intense interest felt in the abstruse questions of metaphysical theology. The Greek mind was speculative; and eager and often acrimonious debate on such questions as were raised by _Nestorius_ respecting the two natures of the Saviour, was heard even in the shops and markets. The court meddled actively in these heated controversies, and was swayed to one party or the other by the theologians whom, for the time, it took into its favor. The emperors assumed the high prerogative of personally deciding in doctrinal disputes, and of dictating opinions to the clergy, who gradually lost their independence, and became abjectly subservient to the imperial will. THE HIPPODROME.--The rage for doctrinal dispute in the sixth century was only exceeded by the passions kindled in connection with the circus, or hippodrome, at Constantinople. In old Rome the competitors in the chariot-races were organized, the drivers wore their respective badges,--red, white, blue, or green,--and emperors of the baser sort, like _Caligula_ and _Caracalla_, visited the stables, and were enrolled on the lists of the rival factions. But in Constantinople the factions of the _blue_ and the _green_, not content with the contest of the race-course, were violent political parties in which courtiers and the emperor himself took sides. The animosity of the _blues_ and the _greens_ broke out in frequent bloody conflicts in the streets. Their respective adherents spread into the provinces. On one occasion, under _Justinian_, they raised a sedition called _Nika_ (from the watchword used by the combatants), which well-nigh subverted the throne. In this period the _body-guard_ of the emperor played a part resembling that of the old praetorians at Rome. JUSTINIAN.--A new dynasty began with _Justin I_., who succeeded _Anastasius_ in 518. A peasant from _Dardania_ (Bulgaria), who to the end of life was obliged to sign his name by means of an engraved tablet, but, from being prefect of the Guard, became emperor, Justin was still not without merit as a ruler. He educated his nephew, _Justinian I_. (527-565), and made him his successor. Justinian married _Theodora_, who had been a comedian and a courtesan, and was famous for her beauty. She was the daughter of _Acacius_, who had had the care of the wild beasts maintained by one of the factions of the circus. She joined the _blues_, and it was her brave spirit that prevented _Justinian_ from taking flight when he was in imminent danger from the revolt of the _Nika_. The most important proceedings and decisions in affairs of state were determined by her will. Outwardly correct in her life, and zealous for orthodoxy, her vigor of mind and cleverness were not without service to the government; but her vindictive passions had full indulgence. Justinian's reign was the most brilliant period in the Byzantine history after the time of Constantine. Under his despotic rule the last vestiges of republican administration were obliterated. His love of pomp and of extravagant expenditure, in connection with his costly wars, subjected the people to a crushing weight of taxation. WAR WITH PERSIA.--The brilliant achievements in war during Justinian's reign were owing to the skill and valor of his generals, especially of the hero _Belisarius_. After a hundred years of amity with Persia, war with that kingdom broke out once more under _Anastasius_ and _Justin_. _Belisarius_ saved the Asiatic provinces, and defended the empire on the east against _Cobad_, and against his successor, _Chosroes I_. (531-579), who was, perhaps, the greatest of the Persian kings of the _Sassanid_ dynasty. The "endless peace" made with him in 533 lasted but seven years. _Chosroes_ captured _Antioch_ in 540. The worst consequences of this success were again averted by _Belisarius_, who was recalled from Italy in all haste. In the treaty of 562, _Justinian_ ingloriously agreed to pay for the honor of being the protector of the Christians in Persia the annual tribute of thirty thousand pieces of gold. CONQUEST OF AFRICA--From a military point of view the conquests of _Justinian_ in Africa, in Italy, and in Spain, were the signal events of his reign. Victory proved fatal to the barbarian conquerors in those countries. They were weakened by the southern climate, by sensual indulgence, and by strife among themselves. Justinian was ready to profit by this diminished capacity of resistance. _Gelimer_, king of the _Vandals_, had put to death _Hilderic_, a kinsman of _Theodosius I_. The emperor made this an occasion of attacking the Vandal kingdom, which was distracted by religious differences and contention. _Belisarius_ sailed to Africa with a fleet of six hundred vessels, manned with twenty thousand sailors and fifteen thousand troops. Three months after landing he gained a decisive victory, and took possession of _Africa, Sardinia_, and the _Balearic Isles_ (534). He carried _Gelimer_ as a captive to Constantinople, and presented him to _Justinian_ and _Theodora_, seated side by side in the hippodrome to receive the triumphal procession in honor of the victor. The captive ruler could only exclaim, "Vanity, vanity! All is vanity!" CONQUEST OF ITALY.--Professedly to avenge the wrongs of _Amalasontha_, the ambitious and intriguing daughter of _Theodoric_, who had been killed as a consequence of the disaffection of the Goths, _Belisarius_ was sent to Italy. _Sicily_ was conquered (535), and _Naples_ and _Rome_ were taken (536). _Vitiges_, the new king of the Goths, united the forces of the nation; but he was driven to shut himself up in _Ravenna_, and Ravenna surrendered (540). The Goths had offered the sovereignty of the country to _Belisarius_. The jealousy of Justinian, and war with Persia, led to the recall of Belisarius before he could complete the work of conquest. The Goths under _Totila_, a nephew of the late king, regained the greater part of Italy. Belisarius (544-549) was sent for the second time to conquer that country. He gained important successes, and recaptured Rome; but he was feebly supported by the suspicious and envious ruler at Constantinople, and was at length called home. _Narses_, a eunuch, insignificant in person, but as crafty as he was brave, was commissioned to accomplish what Belisarius had not been allowed to effect. He entered Italy at the head of an army, made up mostly of Huns, Heruli, and other barbarians, and defeated _Totila_, who died of his wounds (552). The Ostrogothic kingdom fell. The Gothic warriors who survived had leave to quit the country with their property, they having taken an oath never to return. The Ostrogoths, as a nation, vanish from history. The EXARCHATE, or vice-royalty of the Eastern Empire, was established, with its seat at _Ravenna_. In _Spain_, Justinian obtained _Corduba, Assidona, Segontia_ (554), in reward of the assistance which he had rendered to _Athanagild_ against a competitor for the throne. Constantinople was saved by _Belisarius_ from a threatened attack of the _Bulgarians_, who had crossed the Danube on the ice (559). This great general, whose form and stature and benign manners attracted the admiration of the people, as his noble but poorly requited services gave him a right to the gratitude of the sovereign, was accused, in 563, of conspiracy against the life of Justinian. His property was confiscated, but his innocence was finally declared. The story that he was deprived of his eyes, and compelled to beg his bread, is not credited. He died in 565. A few months later _Justinian_ himself died at the age of eighty-three. He has been aptly compared, as to his personal character and the character of his reign, to Louis XIV. of France. Among the many structures which he reared was the temple of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and countless fortresses for the defense of the capital, of the Danube, and of other parts of the exposed frontier. THE CIVIL LAW.--Justinian's principal distinction in history grows out of his relation to legislation, and to the study of the law. He caused a famous lawyer, _Tribonian_, with the aid of a body of jurists, to make those collections of ancient law which are still in force in many countries. The _Code_ included the imperial constitutions and edicts in twelve books (527, 528). This was followed (533) by the _Institutes_, embracing the principles of Roman jurisprudence, which was to be studied in the schools of _Constantinople_, _Berytus_, and _Rome_; and the _Digest_, or _Pandects_, comprising the most valuable passages from the writings of the old jurists, that were deemed of authority. In this last work three million lines were reduced to a hundred and fifty thousand. Finally a fourth work, _The Novels_, embraced the laws of Justinian after the publication of the code (534-565). These works, taken together, form the Civil Law,--the _Corpus Juris Civilis_. They are the legacy of Rome to later times. Humane principles are incorporated into the civil law, but, likewise, the despotic system of imperialism. THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY.--In the great "Wandering of the Nations," the German tribe of _Lombards_, or Langobards, had made their way into _Pannonia_. To the east of them, in _Dacia_, there had arisen the kingdom of the _Gepidae_, a people akin to the _Goths_. In that region, also, were the Turanian _Avars_, with whom the Lombards allied themselves, and overthrew the kingdom of the Gepidæ. After the conquest of Italy, _Narses_ had established there the Byzantine system of rule and of grinding taxation. Discontent was the natural result. The enemies of _Narses_ at Constantinople persuaded _Justin II._ and his queen _Sophia_, who had great influence over him, that prudence demanded the recall of the able, but avaricious and obnoxious, governor. The queen was reported to have said, that "he should leave to men the exercise of arms, and return to his proper station among the women of the palace, where a distaff should be placed in the eunuch's hand." "I will spin her such a thread," Narses is said to have replied, "as she shall not unravel her life long." He forthwith invited the _Lombards_ into Italy, an invitation which they were not both to accept. _Alboin_ was their leader, who had married the beautiful _Rosamond_, daughter of the _Gepid_ king whom he had slain. Narses repented of his rash proceeding, but he died before he could organize a resistance to the invaders. These founded the great Lombard kingdom in the north of Italy, and the smaller Lombard states of _Spoleto_ and _Beneventum_. Ravenna,--the residence of the _Exarchs_,--Rome, Naples, and the island city of Venice, were centers of districts still remaining subject to the Greek emperor, as were also the southern points of the two peninsulas of Southern Italy, and, for the time, the three main islands. _Alboin_ was killed in 574 at the instigation of _Rosamond_, to whom, it was said, at a revel he had sent wine to drink in the skull of _Cunimund_, her father. The Lombards were not like the Goths. They formed no treaties, but seized on whatever lands they wanted, reserving to themselves all political rights. The new-comers were _Arian_ in religion, and partly heathen. There was little intermixture by marriage between the two classes of inhabitants. _Lombard_ and _Roman_ was each governed by his own system of law. Later, especially under the kings _Liutprand_, _Rachis_, and _Aistulf_ (749-756), this antagonism was much lessened, and the Roman law gained a preponderating influence in the Lombard codes. Gradually the power of the independent Lombard duchies increased. The strength of the Lombard kingdom was thus reduced. The Lombards more and more learned the arts of civilized life from the Romans, and shared in the trading and industrial pursuits of the cities. Their gradual conversion to Catholic Christianity brought the two peoples still nearer together. It was within half a century of the Lombard conquest that _Gregory I._ (Gregory the Great) held the papal office (590-604). AFTER JUSTINIAN.--During the century and a half that followed the death of Justinian, the history of the Byzantine court and empire is an almost unbroken tale of crime and degeneracy. The cruelty of such emperors as _Phocas_ (602-610) and _Justinian II_. surpasses the brutality of Nero and Domitian. The reign of _Heraclius_ is the only refreshing passage in this dreary and repulsive record. He led his armies in person in a series of campaigns against _Chosroes II_., the Persian king. At the very time when Constantinople was besieged in vain by a host of Persians and Avars, he conducted his forces into the heart of the Persian Empire; and in a great battle near _Nineveh_ in 627, he won a decisive victory. With the reign of _Heraclius_, the transient prosperity of the Greek Empire comes to an end. It was exhausted, even by its victories. Overwhelmed with taxation, it was ruined in its trade and industry. Despotism in the rulers, sensuality and baseness in rulers and subjects, undermined public and private virtue. In addition to other enemies on every side, it was attacked by the _Arabians_; and _Heraclius_ lived to see the loss of _Syria_ and of _Egypt_, and the capture of _Alexandria_, by these new assailants. CONTROVERSY ON IMAGE WORSHIP.--The period of theological debate, when at its height in the fourth and fifth centuries, whatever extravagances of doctrinal zeal attended it, dealt with themes of grave importance; and controversy was often waged by men of high ability and moral worth. After that time, there succeeded to the tempest an intellectual stagnation, under the blighting breath of despotism, coupled with the effect of a lassitude, the natural sequel of the long-continued disputation. But, in the eighth and ninth centuries, a new controversy took place, which convulsed the Eastern Empire, and extended to the West. The matter in dispute was the use of images in worship. Pictorial representations had been gradually introduced in the earlier centuries, but had been opposed, especially in Egypt and in the African Church. After the time of _Constantine_, they came by degrees into universal use. This formed a ground of reproach on the part of the _Mohammedans_. The warfare upon images was begun by _Leo III_., the Isaurian (717-741), a rough soldier with no appreciation of art, who issued an edict against them. The party of "image-breakers," or _iconoclasts_, had numerous adherents; and the opposite party of "image-worshipers," who had a powerful support from the monks in the convents, were ardent and inflexible in withstanding the imperial measures. Neither the remonstrances of _John of Damascus_, the last of the Greek Fathers, nor of the Roman bishop, made an impression on _Leo_. The agitation spread far and wide. Subsequent emperors followed in his path. At length, however, the Empress _Irene_ (780-802) restored image-worship; and, in 842, the Empress _Theodora_ finally confirmed this act. In the controversy, religious motives were active, but they were mingled on both sides with political considerations. The alienation of feeling on the part of the Roman bishops was one cause of the separation of Italy from the Greek Empire. LITERATURE AND CULTURE.--While there was a prevalence of illiteracy in the West, there continued in the Eastern Empire an interest in letters, and a respect for classical literature. Devoted Greek monks taught the Gospel to the _Bulgarians_ and to the Slavonian tribes on its borders. _Cyril_ and _Methodius_, faithful missionaries, gave the Bible to the _Moravians_ in their own tongue. In the seventh century, _John of Damascus_ compiled from the Greek Fathers a celebrated treatise on theology. But the period of original thought in theology, as elsewhere, had passed by. This work of the Damascene was made up chiefly of excerpts from the Fathers before him. In earlier days the church in the East had been served by erudite theologians of great talents and of great excellence, such as _Basil the Great_ (328-379), _Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzum_ (326-390); all of whom were liberal-minded men, strenuous defenders of orthodox doctrine, and yet not unfriendly to philosophical study. Of even wider fame was _John Chrysostom_ (347-407), a preacher of captivating eloquence and of an earnest Christian spirit, whose censure of the vices of the Byzantine court provoked the wrath of the Empress _Eudoxia_, and twice drove him into banishment. In the declining days of the empire, literary effort was mainly confined to compilations and comments. _Eusebius_, in the fourth century, had written a _History of the Church_, and a _Chronicle_, or General History; and, a century later (about 432), _Zosimus_ composed a _History_ in a spirit of antipathy to Christianity and of sympathy with the old religion. To _Procopius_ (who died about 565) we owe an interesting history of the times of _Justinian_. After the seventh century, all traces of life and spirit vanish from the pages of the Byzantine historians. In mathematics and astronomy, in architecture and mechanics, the Byzantine Greeks were the teachers of the Arabians and of the new peoples of the West. The Byzantine style of architecture was of a distinct type, and was widely diffused. THE SLAVONIC TRIBES.--In the sixth century the _Slavonian_ tribes come into view. The _Avars_ stirred up such a commotion among those tribes as the Huns had created among the Germans. The _Slaves_ were driven to the _northwest_, where later they came into relations with Germany; and to the _southwest_, where, as conquerors and as learners, they stood, in some degree, in relation to the Eastern Empire, in the same position as that of the Germans in reference to the Western. North and East of the Adriatic arose Slavonian States, as _Servia, Croatia, Carinthia. Istria_ and _Dalmatia_, except the cities on the coast, became Slavonic. The Slaves displaced the old _Illyrian_ race. In the seventh and eighth centuries, _Macedonia_ and _Greece_ were largely occupied by Slavonians. The _Bulgarians_ were a Turanian people, who mixed with the Slavonians, and adopted their language. In 895 the _Magyars_, a Turanian people, crowded into _Dacia_ and _Pannonia_; and thus the _Bulgarians_ were confined to the lands south of the Danube. The _Magyars_ formed the kingdom of _Hungary_. The Slavonian _Russians_ were cut off from the Southern tribes of the same race. CHAPTER IV. MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE ARABIC CONQUESTS. CONDITION OF ARABIA.--In the sixth century the influence of the Greek and of the Persian Empires, especially of the Persian, was prevalent in Arabia. It was then inhabited mostly by tribes either distinct or loosely bound together, and contained no independent state of any considerable importance. The Arabs of that day had "all the virtues and vices of the half-savage state, its revenge and its rapacity, its hospitality and its bounty." In the _Hejaz_ district--situated between fertile and more civilized _Yemen_, or Arabia Felix, in the south-west of the peninsula and the Sinaitic region,--and in _Nejd_ to the east of Hejaz, which were the two districts in which Islam and the Arabian Empire took their rise, dwelt tribes whose common sanctuary was the _Kaaba_ at _Mecca_, in the wall of which was the quadrangular black stone kissed by all devotees, and supposed to have been received from the angel Gabriel. The religion of the Arabs was polytheism in many different forms, in which idol-worship was prominent; but all agreed in acknowledging one supreme God, _Allah_, in whose name solemn oaths were taken. Once in the year the tribes gathered in Mecca for their devotions; and a great fair in the vicinity, attended by a poetical contest, made the city prosperous. The town was made up of separate _Septs_, or patriarchal families, each under its own head, of which septs the _Omayyads_ were of principal importance, and had charge of the _Kaaba_. _Mohammed_ belonged to the _Hashimites_, another and poorer branch of the leading tribe of _Koreish_. The _Koreishites_, by their trading-journeys to Syria, had acquired more culture then others, whether Bedouins, or residents of _Medina_. At the time when _Mohammed_ was born, which was probably in 572, the religion of the Arabs had sunk into idolatry or indifference. There were three hundred and sixty images in the Kaaba. But there were some who were called _hanifs_, who were serious and earnest, and turned away from idolatrous worship. Besides the _Sabian_ religion of the Persian sun-worshipers, the leading tenets and rites of Christianity and of Judaism, both in the degenerate types which they assumed on the Syrian borders, were not unfamiliar to Arabs dwelling in the caravan routes on the borders of the Red Sea. CAREER OF MOHAMMED.--_Mohammed_ was early left an orphan under the care of his uncle _Abu Talib_. In his youth he tended sheep, and gathered wild berries in the desert. In his twenty-fifth year he became the commercial agent of a wealthy widow, _Khadija_, made journeys for her into Palestine and Syria,--where he may have received religious knowledge and impressions from Christian monks and Jewish rabbis,--and, after a time, married her. He is described as having a commanding presence, with piercing eyes, fluent in speech, and with pleasing ways. Eventually he came into close contact with the _hanifs_. He followed the custom of retiring for meditation and prayer to the lonely and desolate _Mount Hira._ A vivid sense of the being of one Almighty God and of his own responsibility to God, entered into his soul. A tendency to hysteria in the East a disease of men as well as of women--and to epilepsy helps to account for extraordinary states of body and mind of which he was the subject. At first he ascribed his strange ecstasies, or hallucinations, to evil spirits, especially on the occasion when an angel directed him to begin the work of prophesying. But he was persuaded by _Khadija_ that their source was from above. He became convinced that he was a prophet inspired with a holy truth and charged with a sacred commission. His wife was his first convert. His faith he called _Islam_, which signifies "resignation to the divine will." His cousin _Ali_, his friend _Abubekr_, and a few others, believed in him. There is no doubt that the materials of Mohammed's creed were drawn from Jewish and Christian sources: _Abraham_ was the _hanif_, whose pure monotheism he claimed to re-assert; but the animating spirit was from within. The sum of his doctrine was, that there is only one God, and that Mohammed is the apostle of God. AFTER THE HEGIRA.--The _Koreishites_, the rulers and the elders, persecuted him. They flung out the reproach, that his adherents were from the poor or from the rank of slaves. This provoked him to denounce them, and to threaten them with the Divine judgment and with perdition. He lost his uncle in 619: his wife had died before. He had found sympathy with his claims from pious men from _Medina_. They offered him an asylum. Thither he went in 622, the date of his _Hijira_, or flight from Mecca, from which the Mohammedan calendar is reckoned. At Medina he won influence: he was frequently resorted to as an adviser, and as a judge to settle disputes. His activity in this direction was beneficent. His injunctions respecting the rights of property, and the protection due to women, were, in the main, discreet and wholesome. Naturally and speedily he became a political leader as well as a religious reformer. This new course on which he entered made a breach between him and the _Jews_, whom he had hoped to conciliate. He drew off from fellowship with them, made _Friday_ the principal day of public worship, and Mecca its principal seat. For the Jewish fast he substituted the month of _Ramadan_. His plan was to cement together the Arab tribes, superseding the old tie of blood by the new bond of fellowship in adherence to him. The project of a holy war to conquer and to crush the idolaters, and to establish his own authority, was the means to this end. _Mecca_ was the first object of assault. He attacked and plundered a Meccan caravan in 623. The next year he defeated the _Koreishites_ in the battle of _Bedr_. In the battle of _Ohod_ (625) his followers were worsted. Other conflicts ensued, with attacks on the _Jews_ in the intervals, until, in 630, he entered _Mecca_ at the head of ten thousand men, and destroyed all the idols. This event secured the adhesion of the Arabian tribes, together with the chiefs of _Yemen_ and of the other more civilized districts. Hearing that the Emperor _Heraclius_ was proposing to attack him, he went forth to meet him, but found that the rumor was false. He was preparing a new expedition against the _Greeks_ when he died, in 632. CHARACTER OF MOHAMMED.--From the time of the flight of Mohammed to Medina, the prophet turned more and more into the politician. Under the circumstances, this was, perhaps, an almost inevitable change. But one consequence was the bringing out of his natural vindictiveness, and the transformation of the enthusiast into the fanatic. Beginning as the prophet of Arabia, he came to think that he was the prophet of the whole world. There was a call to a wider warfare against idolatry. A crusade, partly political and partly religious, involved a mixture of craft and cruelty which exhibit his character in a new light. Yet it is probable that he always sincerely felt that his work in general was one to which he was called of God. Even the prosaic regulations and "orders of the day," which are placed in the _Koran_, if not the reproduction, in cataleptic visions, of his previous thoughts, may have been regarded by him as having a divine sanction. The extent of possible self-deception in so extraordinary a combination of qualities, it is not easy to define. His conduct was, for the most part, on a level with his precepts. There was one exception; he allowed not more than four wives to a disciple: he himself, at one time, had eleven. While _Khadija_ lived he was wedded to her alone. THE KORAN.--The Koran is regarded as the word of God by a hundred millions of disciples. It is very unequal in style. In parts it is vigorous, and here and there imaginative, but generally its tone is prosaic. Its narrative portions are chiefly about scriptural persons, especially those of the Old Testament. Mohammed's acquaintance with these must have been indirect, from rabbinical and apocryphal sources. _Adam_, _Noah_, _Abraham_, _Moses_, and _Christ_ are acknowledged as prophets. The deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity are repudiated. The miracles of Jesus are acknowledged. Mohammed does not claim for himself miraculous power. Predestination is taught, but this became a conspicuous tenet of Moslems after the death of the founder. The immortality of the soul is admitted, the pains of hell are threatened to the wicked and to "infidels;" and a sensual paradise is promised to the faithful, although it is declared that higher spiritual joys are the lot of the most favored. The faith of Mohammed was, in substance, Judaism, the religion of the Old Testament; power being set before holiness, however, in the conception of God, and the supernatural mission of _Mohammed_ substituted for the future Messianic reign of righteousness and peace, and coupled with the emphatic proclamation of the last judgment. The law in the Koran is a civil as well as a moral code. Notwithstanding his countenance of sensuality by his own practice, as well as by his legalizing of polygamy, and his notion of paradise, Mohammed elevated the condition of woman among the Arabs. Before there was unbridled profligacy: now there was a regulated polygamy. Severe prohibitions are uttered against thieving, usury, fraud, false witness; and alms-giving is emphatically enjoined. Strong drink and gambling were prohibited. The gem of the Koran is "The Lord's Prayer of the Moslems:" "In the name of God, the compassionate Compassioner, the Sovereign of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way; in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, in whom there is no wrath, and who go not astray." THE ARABIC CONQUESTS: SYRIA, PERSIA, EGYPT.--Mohammed made no provision for the succession. The _Caliphs_, or "successors," combined in themselves civil, military and religious authority. They united the functions of emperor and pope. _Ali_, the husband of _Fatima_, Mohammed's favorite daughter, had hoped to succeed him. But, by the older companions of the prophet, _Abubekr,_ Mohammed's father-in-law was appointed. The _Shiites_ were supporters of Ali, while the _Sunnites_, who adhered to "the traditions of the elders," were against him. These two parties have continued until the present day; the _Persians_ being _Shiites_, and the _Turks, Sunnites_. Mohammed, before he died, was inflamed with the spirit of conquest. Full of the fire of fanaticism, mingled with a thirst for dominion and plunder, the Arabians rapidly extended their sway. These warriors, to their credit be it said, if terrible in attack, were mild in victory. Their two principal adversaries were the _Eastern Empire_ and _Persia_. Mohammedanism snatched from the empire those provinces in which the Greek civilization had not taken deep root, and it made its way into Europe. It conquered _Persia_, and became the principal religion of those Asiatic nations with which history mainly has to do. Mohammed had made a difference in his injunctions between heathen, apostates, and schismatics, all of whom were to embrace Islam or to perish, and Jews and Christians, to both of whom was given the choice of the Koran, tribute, or death. They must buy the right to exercise their religion, if they refused to say that "Allah is God, and Mohammed is His prophet." _Omar_ (634-644), the next caliph after _Abubekr_, and a leader distinguished alike for his military energy and his simplicity of manners and life, first brought all Arabia, which was impelled as much by a craving for booty as by religious zeal, into a cordial union under his banner. Then he carried the war beyond the Arabian borders. _Palestine_ and _Syria_ were wrested from the Greek Empire; the old cities of _Jerusalem, Antioch_, and _Damascus_ fell into the hands of the impetuous Saracens. A mosque was erected on the site of Solomon's Temple. The _Persian Empire_ was invaded, and, after a series of sanguinary battles, especially the battle of _Cadesia_ (636), followed by the battle of _Nehavend_ (641), was destroyed. _Ctesiphon_, with all its riches, was captured, and _Persepolis_ was sacked. The last king of the line of _Sassanids_, _Yezdegerd III_., having lived for many years as a fugitive, perished by the hand of an assassin (652). Meantime _Egypt_ had submitted to the irresistible invaders under _Amr_, who was aided by the Christian sect of the _Copts_, out of hostility to the Greek Orthodox Church. After a siege of fourteen months, _Alexandria_ was taken; but it is probably not true that the library was burned by _Omar's_ order. In the disorders of the times, the great collections of books had probably, for the most part, been dispersed and destroyed. Six friends of Mohammed, selected by _Omar_, chose _Othman_ (644-656) for his successor, who stirred up enmity by his pride and avarice. Under him the Christian _Berbers_ in Africa were won over to the faith of Islam, and paved the way for its further advance. THE OMAYYADS: CONQUEST OF AFRICA AND SPAIN.--_Othman_ was assassinated by three fanatics, and _Ali_ was then raised to the caliphate; but _Muawiyah_, representing the family of the _Omayyads_, made himself the head of an opposing party, and, after the assassination of _Ali_, became sole caliph (661). He removed the seat of the caliphate to _Damascus_. He carried the Arabian conquests as far as the _Indus_ and _Bokhara_. He created a fleet on the Mediterranean, under an "Admiral," that is, a commander on the sea. In seven successive years he menaced Constantinople with his navy. At a later time, in 717, under the caliph _Soliman_, another great attempt was made on the capital of the Greek Empire. With an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men, he traversed Asia Minor and the Hellespont, and was supported in his attack by a fleet of eighteen hundred sail. But the energetic defense, which was aided by the use of "the Greek fire,"--an artificial compound which exploded and burned with an unquenchable flame,--caused the grand expedition to fail; and the Eastern Empire had another long lease of life. The successors of _Muawiyah_ accomplished the subjugation of Africa. They were invited by the native inhabitants, who groaned under the burdens of taxation laid on them by the Greek emperors. About A.D. 700 the Arab governor, _Musa_, completed the conquest of the African dominion of the Greeks as far as the Atlantic. The amalgamation of the _Berbers_ with the other inhabitants of that region, and with the _Arabs_, resulted in the race called _Moors_. At this time the Spanish Visigothic kingdom, which had become Catholic (586-601), was much enfeebled, and a prey to discord. Under _Tarik_--from whom _Gibraltar_, or the mountain of _Tarik_ near which he landed, is named--the Arabs crossed into Spain, and for the first time found themselves face to face with the barbarians of the North. In the great battle of _Xeres de la Frontera_, near the _Guadalquivir_, in 711, which lasted for three days, the fate of the Visigothic kingdom was decided. Eight years were occupied in conquering Spain. In 720 the Saracens occupied _Septimania_ north of the Pyrenees, a dependency of the Gothic kingdom. Gaul now lay open before them. The Mohammedan power threatened to encircle Christendom, and to destroy the Church and Christianity itself. In the plains between _Tours_ and _Poitiers_, the Saracens were met by the Austrasian Franks under _Charles Martel_ (732). The impetuous charges of the Saracen cavalry were met and beaten back by the infantry of the _Franks_, which confronted them like an iron wall. The Mohammedan defeat saved Christian Europe from being trampled under foot by the Mussulman; it saved the Christian people of the _Aryan_ nations from being subjugated by the _Semitic_ disciples of the Koran. At the same time that Spain was overrun, the Turkish lands on the east of the Caspian were subdued. The old antipathy between the Iranians and Turanians, the Schiite Persians and the Sunnite Turks, was afterwards carried into Europe by the Ottoman Moslems. THE ABBASSIDES: BAGDAD.--Misgovernment embittered the faithful against the rule of the _Omayyads_ in _Damascus_, although Syria had become a source of higher culture for the Arabians: there they became acquainted with Greek learning. The adherents of _Ali_ found vigorous champions in the _Abbassides_, who, as _Hashimites_, laid claim to the caliphate. One of them, _Abul Abbas_, was made caliph by the soldiers in 750. The fierce cruelty of his party against the _Omayyads_ led to the murder of all of them except _Abderrahman_, who fled to Africa, and, in 755, founded an independent caliphate at _Cordova_. The _Abbassides_ attached themselves to the _Sunnite_ creed. Under _Almansor_, the brother and successor of _Abbas, Bagdad_, a city founded by _Almansor_ (754-775) on the banks of the Tigris, was made the seat of the caliphate, and so continued until the great Mongolian invasion in 1258. Bagdad was built on the west bank of the Tigris, but, by means of bridges, stretched over to the other shore. It was protected by strong, double walls. It was not only the proud capital of the caliphate: it was, besides, the great market for the trade of the East, the meeting-place of many nations, where caravans from China and Thibet, from India, and from Ferghana in the modern Turkestan, met throngs of merchants from Armenia and Constantinople, from Egypt and Arabia. There trading-fleets gathered which carried the products of the North and West down the great rivers to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. _Bagdad_ was to the caliphs what _Byzantium_ was to Constantine, or _Alexandria_ to the Ptolemies. It became the grandest city in the world. Canals to the number of six hundred ran through it, and a hundred and five bridges bound its two parts together. It was furnished with many thousand mosques and as many baths. The palace of the caliphs comprised in itself all the splendor which Asiatic taste and extravagance could collect and combine in one edifice. THE EASTERN CALIPHATE.--Deprived of the western extremity of their empire, the _Abbassides_ still ruled over _Asia_ and _Africa_. In their luxurious and splendid court, the caliphs, served by a vast retinue of officers with the _Vizier_ at their head, copied the magnificence of the ancient Persians. The most famous of the caliphs of Bagdad is _Harun-al-Rashid_, or "Aaron the Just" (786-809). His name is familiar even to children as the wonderful hero of the "Arabian Nights." His reign, like that of _Solomon_ in ancient Judæa, was considered in after times the golden age of the caliph dominion. As in the case of _Charlemagne_, poetry and romance invested his character and reign with all that can give glory and honor to a king and a sage. Brilliant pictures were drawn of the boundless wealth and luxury of his court, and of his admirable piety and wisdom. About him there was assembled a host of jurists, linguists, and poets. Three hundred scholars traveled at his expense through different lands. Righteous judgments were ascribed to him, and oracular sayings. He was made the ideal ruler of Oriental fancy. His real character fell much below the later popular conception. He behaved like an Eastern despot towards all his kindred who stood in his way. The Persian family of _Barmecides_ he exterminated, when his passionate attachment to one of them turned to hatred on account of an obscure affair connected with the harem. Stories told by Western chroniclers of his relations with _Charlemagne_ require to be sifted. The Greek emperor _Nicephorus_, who had rashly defied him, he addressed as the "Roman dog." Nine times _Harun_ invaded the Greek Empire, left its provinces wasted as by a hurricane, and extorted from it a tribute which he obliged the emperors, who repented of their daring, to pay in coin stamped with his image. His best distinction is in the liberal patronage which he, no doubt, extended to learning. In this he was imitated by his son _Al Mamun_ (813-833), who founded numerous schools, and expended vast sums in behalf of science and letters. The caliphate was weakened by the introduction of the _Turks_, somewhat as the Roman Empire fared from its relations with the Germans. _Motasem_ (833-842), the eighth of the Abbassides, brought in a Turkish guard of forty thousand slaves, purchased in _Tartary_. These soldiers, instead of remaining servants, became lawless masters, and disposed of the throne as the prætorians at Rome had done. The palace of the caliphs was filled with violence. Revolution and anarchy, kept up during two centuries, broke the caliphate into fragments. Conspiracies and insurrections were the order of the day. _Africa_ had detached itself in the time of _Harun-al-Rashid_. In _Asia_ various independent dynasties arose, formed mostly by Turkish governors of provinces. THE TURKISH EMIRS.--In the eleventh century, the _Seljukian Turks_ despoiled the Arabs of their sovereignty in the East. The caliph at _Bagdad_ gave up all his temporal power to _Togrul Bey_ (1058), and retained simply the spiritual headship over orthodox Mussulmans. To the Turk who bore the title _Emir al Omra_, was given the military command. He was what the Mayor of the Palace had been among the Franks. In 1072 his son, _Malek Shah_, made _Ispahan_ his capital, and governed Asia from China to the vicinity of Constantinople. THE FATIMITE CALIPHATE.--In the ninth and tenth centuries the _Aglabites_ (800-909), whose capital was _Cairoan_ (in Tunis), were dominant in the Western Mediterranean, established themselves, in their marauding expeditions, in _Corsica, Sardinia_, and _Sicily_, and several times attacked Italy. In 909 they, with the _Edrisites_, adherents of _Ali_, in _Fez_, formed, under a Fatimite chief, _Moez_, with Egypt, the African Caliphate, the seat of which was at _Cairo_ (968). The Fatimite caliphs extended their power over Syria. The most famous of the caliphs of _Cairo_ was _Hakem_ (996-1020), a monster of cruelty, who claimed to be the incarnation of Deity. These caliphs claimed to be the descendants of _Ali_ and of _Fatima_. Their dynasty was extinguished by _Saladin_ in 1171. THE CALIPHS OF CORDOVA.--In Spain the caliphs of _Cordova_ allowed to the Christians freedom of worship and their own laws and judges. The mingling of the conquerors with the conquered gave rise to a mixed _Mozarabic_ population. The _Franks_ conquered the country as far as the _Ebro_ (812). Under _Mohammed I_. (852), the Saracen governors of the provinces sought to make themselves independent; but the most brilliant period of the caliphate of Cordova followed, under _Abderrahman III_. (912-961). In the eleventh century there was anarchy, produced by the African guard of the caliphs, which played a part like that of the Turkish guard at _Bagdad_, and by reason of the rebellion of the governors. In 1031 the last descendant of the _Omayyads_ was deposed, and in 1060 the very title of caliph vanished. The caliphate gave place to numerous petty Moslem kingdoms. The African Mussulmans came to their help, and thus gave the name of _Moors_ to the Spanish Mohammedans. Their language and culture, however, remained Arabic. The Arabian conquests had moved like a deluge to the _Indus_, to the borders of _Asia Minor_, and to the _Pyrenees_. In Syria they were not generally resisted by the people. Egypt, for the same reason, was an easy conquest. It took the Moslems sixty years to conquer _Africa_. In three years nearly all Spain was theirs; and it was not until seven hundred years after this time that they were utterly driven out of that country. THE MOSLEM GOVERNMENT--The Moslem civilization rested on the Koran. Grammar, lexicography, theology, and law stood connected at first with the study and understanding of the Sacred Book. The _Caliph_ was the fountain of authority. There was a fixed system of taxation, the poll-tax and land-tax being imposed only on non-Moslem subjects. All Moslems received a yearly pension, a definite sum determined by their rank. The empire was divided into provinces, each governed by a _Prefect_, who was a petty sovereign, subject only to the _Caliph_. The _Generals_ were appointed by the caliph, by the prefects, or by the _Vizier_, who was the prime minister. The _Judges (cadis)_ were appointed by the same officers. There was a court of appeal over which the caliph presided. There were inspectors of the markets, who were also censors of morals. The _Imam_ had for his function to recite the public prayers in the mosque. The leader of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca was an officer of the highest dignity. THEOLOGY: LAW: LITERATURE.--The Mohammedans entered into discussions of theology, which gave rise to differences, and to schools and sects. The nature of the Deity, predestination, the future life, were subjects of profound and subtle inquiry. More than once, pantheistic doctrine was broached by speculative minds, such as _Avicenna_ and _Averrhoes_. In Persia, _Súfism_, a form of mysticism, made great progress. It extolled the unselfish love of God, and a contemplative and ascetic life. _Law_ was studied; and on the basis of the _Koran_, and of reasonings upon it, systems of jurisprudence were created. _Science_ and _Literature_ kept pace with legal studies. _Poetry_ flourished through the whole period of the Eastern caliphate. There were, also, Persian poets who hold an important place in the history of literature, of whom _Firdousi_ (about 940 to 1020) and _Saadi_ (who died in 1291) are the most eminent. Under the _Abbassides_ in Syria, through Christian scholars and by translations, the Arabians became acquainted with the Greek authors. They cultivated geography. The Moslems were students of astronomy, and carried the study of mathematics, which they learned from the Greeks and Hindus, very far. But they apparently felt no interest in the poets, orators, and historians of antiquity. In the study of _Aristotle_, and in metaphysical philosophy, they were proficients. Medicine, also, they cultivated with success. They delved in _Alchemy_ in the search for the transmutation of metals. COMMERCE AND THE ARTS.--The Moslems engaged actively in commerce. They acquired much skill in various branches of mechanical art. The weapons of _Damascus_ and of _Toledo_, the silks of _Granada_, the saddles of _Cordova_, the muslins, silks, and carpets of the Moslem dominions in the East, were highly prized in Christian countries. They manufactured paper. Forbidden to represent the human form in painting and sculpture, their distinction in the fine arts is confined to architecture. Peculiar to them is the _Arabesque_ ornamentation found in their edifices: the idea of the arch was borrowed from the Byzantine style. One of their most famous monuments is the mosque at _Cordova_. The ruins of the _Alhambra_, in Spain, a palace and a fortress, illustrate the richness and elegance of the Saracenic style of building. THE ARABIAN MIND.--Neither in architecture, nor in any other department, were the Arabs in a marked degree original. They invented nothing. They were quick to learn, and to assimilate what they learned. They were apt interpreters and critics, but they produced no works marked by creative genius. Many of the scholars at the court of the caliphs were Christians and Jews. Yet _Bagdad, Samarcand, Cairo, Grenada, Cordova_, were centers of intellectual activity and of learning when the nations of Western Europe had not escaped from the barbarism resulting from the Teutonic invasions. LITERATURE.--Lives of Mohammed by MUIR, SPRENGER (German), Irving: _Encycl. Brit._, Art. _Mohammedanism_; Kuenen, _National Religions and Universal Religions;_ Nöldeke, _Gesch. d. Quorans_ (1860); Muir, _The Corân_ (1878); R. B. Smith, _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_ (1875); Stobart, _Islam and its Founder_; Ockley, _History of the Saracens_ (sixth edition, 1857); FREEMAN, _History and Conquests of the Saracens_ (1870). THE CARLOVINGIAN HOUSE PIPIN of Heristal, _d._ 714. | +--Charles Martel, _d._ 741. | +--PIPIN the Short, king 752-768. | +--CHARLEMANGE, 768-814 (emperor 800). | | | +--Pipin, King of Italy, _d._ 810. | | | | | +--BERNARD, _d._ 818. | | | +--Charles, King of Franconia. | | | +--LOUIS the Pious, 814-840. | | | | LOTHARINGIA | | | +--LOTHAR I, 843-855. | | | | | +--LOUIS II, 855-875 | | | | | | | +--Hermingarde, _m._ | | | BOSO I, King of Provence, 879-887 | | | | | | | +--LOUIS, 887-905 (emperor 901) _m._ Eadgifu, | | | daughter of Edward the Elder | | | | | +--Lothar II, _d._ 869. | | | | | +--Charles, _d._ 863 | | | | GERMANY | | | +--LOUIS the German, 843-876. | | | | | +--CARLOMAN, _d._ 880. | | | | | | | +--ARNULF, King of Germany, 887-899 (emperor 896). | | | | | | | +--LOUIS the Child, 900-911. | | | | | +--LOUIS the Younger. d 880. | | | | | +--CHARLES the Fat (emperor 881-887), _d._ 888. | | | | FRANCE | | | +--CHARLES the Bald, 843-877 (emperor 875). | | | +--LOUIS II, 877-879. | | | +--LOUIS III, 879-882 | | | +--Carloman, 879-884 | | | +--CHARLES the Simple, _m._ Eadgifu, | daughter of Edward the Elder | | | +--LOUIS IV (D'Outremer), 936-954. | | | +--Matilda, _m._ CONRAD the Peaceful. | | | | | +--RUDOLPH III, 993-1032 | | | +--LOTHAR, 954-986. | | | | | +--LOUIS V, 986-987. | | | +--Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, _d._ 994. | +--Carloman, 768-771. RIVAL KINGS OF FRANCE NOT OF THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE. Robert the Strong, _d._ 866. | +--EUDES, king 887-893. | +--ROBERT, king 922-923. | +--Emma, _m._ RUDOLPH of Burgundy; king 923-926. | +--Hugh the Great (father of Hugh Capet). PERIOD II. FROM THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK KINGS TO THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE. (_A.D. 751-962._) CHAPTER I. THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE (A.D. 814). PIPIN THE SHORT.--The great event of the eighth century was the organization and spread of the dominion of the _Franks_, and the transfer to them of the Roman Empire of the West. Three Frank princes--_Charles Martel_, _Pipin the Short_, and _Charlemagne_, or _Karl the Great_--were the main instruments in bringing in this new epoch in European history. They followed a similar course, as regards the wars which they undertook, and their general policy. _Charles Martel_, the conqueror of the Saracens at _Poitiers_, rendered great services to the Church; but he provoked the lasting displeasure of the ecclesiastics by his seizures of church property. He rewarded his soldiers with archbishoprics. _Pipin_, however, was earnestly supported by the clergy. He had the confidence and favor of the Franks, and in 751, with the concurrence of Pope _Zacharias_, deposed _Childeric III._, and assumed the title of king. The long hair of _Childeric_, the badge of the Frank kings, was shorn, and he was placed in a monastery. In 752 _Pipin_ was anointed and crowned at _Soissons_ by _Boniface_, the bishop of _Mentz_, who exerted himself to restore order and discipline in the Frank Church, which had fallen into disorder in the times of Charles Martel. PIPIN IN ITALY.--The controversy with the Greeks about the use of images had alienated the popes from the Eastern Empire. The encroachments of the Lombards threatened Rome itself, and were a constant menace to the independence of its bishops. Pope _Stephen III_. resorted to _Pipin_ for help against these aggressive neighbors; and, in 754, _Stephen_ solemnly repeated, in the cathedral of St. Denis, the ceremony of his coronation. The Carlovingian usurpation was thus hallowed in the eyes of the people by the sanction of the Church. The alliance between the Papacy and the Franks, so essential to both, was cemented. Pipin crossed the Alps in 754, and humbled _Aistulf_, the Lombard king; but, as Aistulf still kept up his hostility to the Pope, Pipin once more led his forces into Italy, and compelled him to become tributary to the Frank kingdom, and to cede to him the territory which he had won from the Greek Empire,--the exarchate of _Ravenna_ and the _Pentapolis_, or the lands and cities between the Apennines and the Adriatic, from _Ferrara_ to _Ancona_. This territory the Frank king formally presented to St. Peter. Thus there was founded the temporal kingdom of the popes in Italy. _Pipin_ was called _Patricius_ of Rome, which made him its virtual sovereign, although the office and title implied the continued supremacy of the Eastern Empire. He united under him all the conquests which had been made by _Clovis_ and his successors. His sway extended over _Aquitaine_ and as far as the Pyrenees. It was the rule of the _Teutonic_ North over the more _Latin_ South, which had no liking for the Frank sovereignty. CHARLEMAGNE: THE SAXONS AND SARACENS.--_Pipin_ died in 768. By the death of his younger son, Carloman, his older son, _Charles_, in 771 became the sole king of the Franks. Charlemagne is more properly designated _Karl the Great_, for he was a German in blood and speech, and in all his ways. He stands in the foremost rank of conquerors and rulers. His prodigious energy and activity as a warrior may be judged by the number of his campaigns, in which he was uniformly successful. The eastern frontier of his dominions was threatened by the _Saxons_, the _Danes_, the _Slaves_, the _Bavarians_, the _Avars_. He made eighteen expeditions against the Saxons, three against the Danes, one against the Bavarians, four against the Slaves, four against the Avars. Adding to these his campaigns against the Saracens, Lombards, and other peoples, the number of his military expeditions is not less than fifty-three. In all but two of his marches against the Saxons, however, he accomplished his purpose without a battle. That he was ambitious of conquest and of fame, is evident. That he had the rough ways of his German ancestors, and was unsparing in war, is equally certain. Yet he was not less eminent in wisdom than in vigor; and his reign, on the whole, was righteous as well as glorious. The two most formidable enemies of Charlemagne were the _Saxons_ and the _Saracens_. The Saxon war "was checkered by grave disasters, and pursued with undismayed and unrelenting determination, in which he spared neither himself nor others. It lasted continuously--with its stubborn and ever-recurring resistance, its cruel devastations, its winter campaigns, its merciless acts of vengeance--as the effort which called forth all Charles's energy for thirty-two years" (772-804). The Saxons were heathen. The conquest of them was the more difficult because it involved the forced introduction of Christianity in the room of their old religion. More than once, when they seemed to be subdued, they broke out in passionate and united revolt. Their fiercest leader in insurrection was _Witikind_. A last and terrible uprising, in consequence of the slaughter of forty-five hundred Saxons on the _Aller_ as a punishment for breach of treaty, was put down in 785, when _Witikind_ submitted, and consented to receive Christian baptism. During the progress of the Saxon war, at the call of the Arab governor of _Saragossa_ for aid against the caliph _Abderrahman_, Charles marched into Spain, and conquered Saragossa and the whole land as far as the _Ebro_. On his return, in the valley of _Ronceveaux_, the Frank rear guard was surprised and destroyed by the _Basques_. There fell the Frank hero _Roland_, whose gallant deeds were a favorite subject of mediæval romances. The duchy of _Bavaria_ was abolished after a second revolt of its duke, _Tassilo_ (788). One of the most brilliant of Charlemagne's wars was that against the Hunnic _Avars_ (791). Their land between the _Ems_ and _Raab_ he annexed to his empire. Bavarian colonists were planted in it. Enormous treasures which they had gathered, in their incursions, from all Europe, were captured, with their "Ring," or palace-camp. The Slavonic tribes were kept in awe. _Brittany_ was subjugated in 811. In the closing years of Charles's reign, the _Danes_ became more and more aggressive and formidable. He visited the northern coasts, made _Boulogne_ and _Ghent_ his harbors and arsenals, and built fleets for defense against the audacious invaders. CHARLEMAGNE IN ITALY.--Some of the most memorable incidents in Charlemagne's career are connected with Italy. While he was busy in the Saxon war, he had been summoned to protect Pope _Hadrian I_. (772-795) from the attack of the Lombards. To please his mother, _Charles_ had married, but he had afterwards divorced, the daughter of the Lombard king _Desiderius_. She was the first in the series of Charlemagne's wives, who, it is said, were nine in number. By the divorce he incurred the resentment of Desiderius, who required the Pope to anoint the sons of _Carloman_ as kings of the Franks. In 772 Charlemagne crossed the Alps by the Mont Cenis and the St. Bernard, captured _Pavia_, and shut up Desiderius in a Frank monastery. The king of the Franks became king of the _Lombards_, and lord of all Italy, except the _Venetian Islands_ and the southern extremity of _Calabria_, which remained subject to the Greeks. The German king and the Pope were now, in point of fact, dominant in the West. A woman, _Irene_, who had put out the eyes of her son that she herself might reign, sat on the throne at Constantinople. This was a fair pretext for throwing off the Byzantine rule, which afforded no protection to Italians. Once more _Charles_ visited Italy, to restore to the papal chair _Leo III._, who had been expelled by an adverse party, and, at Charles's camp at _Paderborn_, had implored his assistance. On Christmas Day in the year 800, during the celebration of mass in the old Basilica of St. Peter, _Leo III._ advanced to _Charlemagne_, and placed a crown on his head, saluting him, amid the acclamations of the people, as Roman emperor. MEANING OF CHARLES'S CORONATION.--The coronation of Charlemagne made him the successor of Augustus and of Constantine. It was not imagined that the empire had ever ceased to be. The Byzantine emperors had been acknowledged in form as the rulers of the West: not even now was it conceived that the empire was divided. In the imagination and feeling of men, the creation of the Caesars remained an indivisible unity. The new emperor in the West could therefore only be regarded as a rival and usurper by the Byzantine rulers; but Charlemagne professed a friendly feeling, and addressed them as his brothers,--as if they and he were exercising a joint sovereignty. In point of fact, there had come to be a new center of wide-spread dominion in Western Europe. The diversity in beliefs and rites between Roman Christianity and that of the Greeks had been growing. The popes and Charlemagne were united by mutual sympathy and common interests. The assumption by him of the imperial title at their instance, and by the call of the Roman people, was the natural issue of all the circumstances. CHARLES'S SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.--Charlemagne showed himself a statesman bent on organization and social improvement. There was a system of local officers. The border districts of the kingdom were made into _Marks_, under _Margraves_ or _Marquesses_, for defense against the outlying tribes. One of them, to the east of Bavaria, was afterwards called _Austria_. _Dukes_ governed provinces, some of which afterwards became kingdoms. Their power the emperor tried to reduce. The empire was divided into districts, in each of which a _Count_ (_Graf_) ruled, with inferior officers, either territorial or in cities. _Bishops_ had large domains, and great privileges and immunities. The officers held their places at the king's pleasure: they became possessed of landed estates, and the tendency was, for the offices to become hereditary. The old German word _Graf_ is of uncertain derivation, but means the same as _count_ (from the Latin _comes_). _Mark_ is a word found in all the Teutonic languages. From the signification of _boundary_, it came to be applied, like its synonym _march_, to a frontier district. A _margrave_ (_Mark-Graf_) was a _mark-count_, or an officer ruling for the king in such a district. A _viscount_ (_vicecomes_) was an officer subordinate to a _count_. _Pfalz_, meaning originally _palace_ (from the Latin _palatium_), was the term for any one of the king's estates. The _palsgrave_ (_Pfalz-Graf_) was first his representative in charge of one of these domains. The _stallgrave_ (_Stall-Graf_) corresponded to the _constable_ (_comes stabuli_) in English and French. It signifies the officer in charge of the king's _stables_, the groom. He had a military command. A later designation of the same office is _marshal_ (from two old German words, one of which means a _horse_, as seen in our word _mare_, having the same etymology, and the other means a _servant_). Imperial deputies, or _missi_, lay and ecclesiastical together, visited all parts of the kingdom to examine and report as to their condition, to hold courts, and to redress wrongs. There were appeals from them to the imperial tribunal, over which the _Palsgrave_ presided. Twice in the year great _Assemblies_ were held of the chiefs and people, to give advice as to the framing of laws. The enactments of these assemblies are collected in the _Capitularies_ of the Frank kings. In the Church, Charlemagne tried to secure order, which had sadly fallen away, and had given place to confusion and worldliness. He himself exercised high ecclesiastical prerogatives, especially after he became emperor. LEARNING AND CULTURE.--One of the chief distinctions of Charlemagne is the encouragement which he gave to learning. In his own palace at _Aachen_ (_Aix_), he collected scholars from different quarters. Of these the most eminent is _Alcuin_, from the school of York in England. He was familiar with many of the Latin writers, and while at the head of the school in the palace, and later, when abbot of St. Martin in _Tours_, exerted a strong influence in promoting study. _Charlemagne_ himself spoke Latin with facility, but not until late in life did he try to learn to write. It was his custom to be read to while he sat at meals. Augustine's _City of God_ was one of the books of which he was fond. In the great sees and monasteries, schools were founded, the benefits of which were very soon felt. CHARLES'S PERSONAL TRAITS.--Charlemagne was seven feet in height, and of noble presence. His eyes were large and animated, and his voice clear, but not so strong as his frame would have led one to expect. His bearing was manly and dignified. He was exceedingly fond of riding, hunting, and of swimming. _Eginhard_, his friend and biographer, says of him, "In all his undertakings and enterprises, there was nothing he shrank from because of the toil, and nothing that he feared because of the danger." He died, at the age of seventy, on Jan. 28, 814. He had built at _Aix la Chapelle_ a stately church, the columns and marbles of which were brought from Ravenna and Rome. Beneath its floor, under the dome, was his tomb. There he was placed in a sitting posture, in his royal robes, with the crown on his head, and his horn, sword, and book of the Gospels on his knee. In this posture his majestic figure was found when his tomb was opened by _Otto III_., near the end of the tenth century. The marble chair in which the dead monarch sat is still in the cathedral at _Aix_: the other relics are at _Vienna_. The splendor of Charlemagne's reign made it a favorite theme of romance among the poets of Italy: a mass of poetic legends gathered about it. EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE.--Charlemagne's empire comprised all Gaul, and Spain to the Ebro, all that was then Germany, and the greater part of Italy. Slavonic nations along the Elbe were his allies. Pannonia, Dacia, Istria, Liburnia, Dalmatia,--except the sea-coast towns, which were held by the Greeks,--were subject to him. He had numerous other allies and friends. Even _Harunal-Rashid_, the famous Caliph of Bagdad, held him in high honor. Among the most valued presents which were said to have come from the Caliph were an elephant, and a curious water-clock, which was so made, that, at the end of the hours, twelve horsemen came out of twelve windows, and closed up twelve other windows. This gift filled the inmates of the palace at _Aix_ with wonder. CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.--The number of free Franks diminished under Charlemagne. They were thinned out in the wars, or sunk into vassalage. The warnings and rebukes in the Capitularies, or body of laws, show that the upper clergy were often sensual and greedy of gain. The bishops would often lead in person their contingent of troops, until they were forbidden to do so by law. Nine-tenths of the population of Gaul were slaves. Charlemagne made _Alcuin_ the present of an estate on which there were twenty thousand slaves. Especially in times of scarcity, as in 805 and 806, their lot was a miserable one. At such times, they fled in crowds to the monasteries. The social state was that of feudalism "in all but the development of that independence in the greater lords, which was delayed by the strength of Karl, but fostered, at the same time, by his wars and his policy towards the higher clergy." CONVERSION OF GERMANY: BONIFACE.--The most active missionaries in the seventh and eighth centuries were, from the British islands. At first they were from Ireland and Scotland. _Columban_, who died in 615, and his pupil Gallus, labored, not without success, among the _Alemanni_. Gallus established himself as a hermit near Lake Constance. He founded the Abbey of _St. Gall_. The Saxon missionaries from England were still more effective. The most eminent of these was _Winfrid_, who received from Rome the name of _Bonifacius_ (680-755). He converted the _Hessians_, and founded monasteries, among them the great monastery of _Fulda_. There his disciple, _Sturm_, "through a long series of years, directed the energies of four thousand monks, by whose unsparing labors the wilderness was gradually reclaimed, and brought into a state of cultivation." _Boniface_ had proved the impotence of the heathen gods by felling with the axe an aged oak at _Geismar_, which was held sacred by their worshipers. Among the _Thuringians_, _Bavarians_, and other tribes, he extirpated paganism by peaceful means. He organized the German Church under the guidance of the popes, and, in 743, was made archbishop of _Meniz_, and primate. But his Christian ardor moved him to carry the gospel in person to the savage _Frisians_, by whom he was slain. He thus crowned his long career with martyrdom. CONVERSION OF THE SCANDINAVIANS.--The apostle of the Scandinavians was _Ansgar_ (801-865). The archbishopric of _Hamburg_ was founded for him by _Louis the Pious_, with the papal consent; but, as Hamburg was soon plundered by pirates, he became bishop of _Bremen_ (849). In that region he preached with success. Two visits he made to _Sweden_, the first with little permanent result; but, at the second visit (855), the new faith was tolerated, and took root. The triumph of the religion of the cross, which _Ansgar_ had planted in _Denmark_, was secured there when _Canute_ became king of England. The first Christian king in Sweden was _Olaf Schooskonig_ (1008). In _Norway_, Christianity was much resisted; but when _Olaf the Thick_, who was a devoted adherent of the Christian faith, had perished in battle (1033), his people, who held him in honor, fell in with the church arrangements which he had ordained; and he became _St. Olaf_, the patron saint of Norway. THE BENEDICTINES.--_Benedict_, born at _Nursia_, in _Umbria_, in 480, the founder of the monastery of _Monte Cassino_, north-west of Naples, was the most influential agent in organizing monasticism in Western Europe. He was too wise to adopt the extreme asceticism that had often prevailed in the East, and his judicious regulations combined manual labor with study and devotion. They not only came to be the law for the multitude of monasteries of his own order, but also served as the general pattern, on the basis of which numerous other orders in later times were constituted. His societies of monks were at first made up of laics, but afterwards of priests. The three vows of the monk were _chastity_, including abstinence from marriage; _poverty_, or the renunciation of personal possessions; and _obedience_ to superiors. The Benedictine cloisters long continued to be asylums for the distressed, schools of education for the clergy, and teachers of agriculture and the useful arts to the people in the regions where they were planted. Their abbots rose to great dignity and influence, and stood on a level with the highest ecclesiastics. CHAPTER II. DISSOLUTION OP CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE: RISE OF THE KINGDOMS OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY. DIVISIONS IN THE EMPIRE.--The influence of _Charlemagne_ was permanent; not so his empire. It had one religion and one government, but it was discordant in language and in laws. The Gallo-Romans and the Italians spoke the Romance language, with variations of dialect. The Germans used the Teutonic tongue. Charlemagne left to the Lombards, to the Saxons, and to other peoples, their own special laws. The great bond of unity had been the force of his own character and the vigor of his administration. His death was, therefore, the signal for confusion and division. The tendency to dismemberment was aided by the ambition of the princes of the imperial family. The _Austrasian_ Franks, to whom Charlemagne belonged, craved unity. The _Gallo-Romans_ in the West, the _Teutons_ in the East, aspired after independence. _Louis the Pious_ (814-840), Charlemagne's youngest son,--who, in consequence of the death of his elder brothers, was the sole successor of his father,--lacked the energy requisite for so difficult a place. He was better adapted to a cloister than to a throne. He had been crowned at _Aix_ before his father's death; but he consented to be crowned anew by Pope _Stephen IV_. at _Rheims_, in 816. His troubles began with a premature division of his states between his sons, _Lothar_, _Pipin_, and _Louis_. His nephew, _Bernhard_, who was to reign in Italy in subordination to his uncle, rebelled, but was captured and killed (818). In order to provide for his son _Charles the Bald_, whose mother _Judith_ he had married for his second wife, he made a new division in 829. The elder sons at once revolted against their father, and _Judith_ and her son were shut up in a cloister (830). _Louis_ the son repented, the Saxons and East Franks supported the emperor, and he was restored. In 833 he took away _Aquitaine_ from Pipin, and gave it to _Charles_. The rebellious sons again rose up against him. In company with Pope _Gregory IV_., who joined them, they took their father prisoner on the plains of Alsace, his troops having deserted him. The place was long known as the "Field of Lies." He was compelled by the bishops to confess his sins in the cathedral at _Soissons_, reading the list aloud. Once more _Louis_ was released, and forgave his sons; but partition after partition of territory, with continued discord, followed until his death. The quarrels of his surviving sons, _Lothar_, _Louis the German_, and _Charles the Bald_, brought on, in 841, the great battle of _Fontenailles_. The contest was occasioned by the ambition of _Lothar_, the eldest, who claimed for himself the whole imperial inheritance. There was great carnage, and _Lothar_ was defeated. The bishops present saw in the result a verdict of God in favor of his two adversaries. The result was the _Treaty of Verdun_ for the division of the empire. TERMS OF THE TREATY OF VERDUN.--_Louis the German_ took the Eastern and German Franks, and _Charles the Bald_ the Western and Latinized Franks. _Lothar_, who retained the imperial title, received the middle portion of the Frank territory, including Italy and a long, narrow strip of territory between the dominions of his brothers, and extending to the North Sea. This land took later the name of _Lotharingia_, or _Lorraine_. It always had the character of a border-land. While _Louis's_ share comprised only German-speaking peoples, _Charles's_ kingdom was made up almost exclusively of Gallo-Roman inhabitants; while under _Lothar_ the two races were mingled. This division marks the birth of the _German_ and _French_ nations as such. The German-speaking peoples in the East, who were affiliated in language, customs, and spirit, more and more grew together into a nation. In like manner, the subjects of the Western kingdom more and more were resolved into a Franco-Roman nationality. _Lothar_ ruled at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was styled emperor; but each of the other kingdoms was independent, and the empire of Charlemagne was dissolved. Only for a short time, under _Charles the Fat_ (881-887), nearly the whole monarchy of Charlemagne was united under one scepter. When he was deposed it was again broken in pieces; and four distinct kingdoms emerged,--those of the Eastern and Western Franks, "the forerunners of Germany and France," and the kingdoms of Italy and of Burgundy, in South-eastern Gaul, which were sometimes united and sometimes separate. _Lotharingia_ was attached now to the Eastern and now to the Western Frank kingdom. In theory there was not a severance, but a sharing, of the common possession which had been the object of contention. EASTERN CARLOVINGIANS.--_Charles the Fat_ was a weak and sluggish prince. He offered no effectual resistance to the destructive ravages of the Normans, or Scandinavian Northmen. He was deposed in 887, and died in the following year on an island in the Lake of Constance. His successor, the grandson of _Louis the German_, _Arnulf_, duke of Carinthia, became king of the Germans, (887-899) and emperor; and, after his short reign, the line of Louis died out in _Louis the Child_, the weak son of _Arnulf_ (900-911). The house of Charlemagne survived only among the Western Franks. During the reign of Louis the Child, _Hatto_ (I.), archbishop of _Mentz_ and primate of Germany, was regent and guardian of the king. He was a bold defender of the unity of the empire. He was charged, truly or falsely, with taking the life of _Adalbert_, a Frank nobleman whom he had enticed into his castle. There was a popular tradition that the devil seized Hatto's corpse, and threw it into the crater of Mount Ætna. The mistake is often made of connecting the popular legend of the "Mouse-tower" at _Bingen_ on the Rhine, with him. It was told of a later Hatto (_Hatto II._), who was likewise archbishop of _Mentz_ (968). He was charged with shutting up the poor in a barn, in a time of famine, and of burning them there. As the story runs, he called them "rats who ate the corn." Numberless mice swam to the tower which he had built in the midst of the stream, and devoured him. _Southey_ has put the tale into a ballad,--"God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop." KINGDOM OF FRANCE.--In 841 _Rouen_ fell into the hands of the Normans, and _Paris_ lay open to their attacks. In 861 _Charles the Bald_ invested a brave soldier, _Robert the Strong_, whose descent is not known, with the county of Paris, that he might resist the invaders. He held the country between the Seine and the Loire, under the name of the _Duchy of France_. The other _Francia_, east of the Rhine, continued to be an important part of Germany, the district called _Franconia_. Robert was the greatgrandfather of _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the kingdom of _France_. Under the imbecile _Charles the Fat_, the audacious Northmen (885-886) laid siege to _Paris_. It was _Odo_, or _Eudes_, count of Paris, who led the citizens in their heroic and successful resistance. Him the nobles of France chose to be their king. His family were called "Dukes of the French." Their duchy--_Western_ or _Latin Francia_--was the strongest state north of the Loire. The feudal lords were growing mightier, and the imperial or royal power was becoming weaker. After _Odo_ of Paris was elected to the Western kingdom, there followed a period of about a hundred years during which there was a king sometimes from his house and sometimes from the family of the Carlovingians. The latter still spoke German, and, when they had the power, reigned at _Laon_ in the northeastern corner of the kingdom. _Odo_ ruled from 888 until 898. He had to leave the southern part of France independent. During the last five years of his life he was obliged to contend with _Charles the Simple_ (893-929), who was elected king by the Carlovingian party of the north. The most noted of the Carlovingian kings at _Laon_ was _Louis_ "from beyond seas" (936-954), Charles's son, who had been carried to England for safety. His reign was a constant struggle with _Hugh the Great_, duke of the French, the nephew of King Odo. _Hugh_ would not accept the crown himself. On the death of _Louis V_. (986-987), the direct line of Charlemagne became extinct. The only Carlovingian heir was his uncle, _Charles_, _duke of Lorraine_. His claim the barons would not recognize, but elected _Hugh Capet_, duke of France, to be king, who, on the 1st (or the 3d) of July, 987, was solemnly crowned in the cathedral of Noyon, by the archbishop of Rheims. Just at this juncture, when the contest was between the dukes of the French and _Charles of Lorraine_, the Carlovingian claimant to the sovereignty, the adhesion and support of Duke _Richard_ of Normandy (943-996) was of decisive effect. The Normans had been on the side of _Laon_; now they turned the scale in favor of the elevation of the Duke of France. The German party at _Laon_ could not withstand the combined power of _Rouen_ and _Paris_. Thus with _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the Capetian line, the kingdom of _France_ began, having _Paris_ for its capital; and the name of _France_ came gradually to be applied to the greater part of Gaul. But when _Hugh Capet_ became king, the great feudal states were almost independent of the royal control. Eight were above the rest in power and extent. "The counts of _Flanders_, _Champagne_, and _Vermandois_, and the dukes of _Normandy_, _Brittany_, _Burgundy_, and _Aquitaine_, regarded themselves as the new king's peers or equals." _Lorraine_, _Arles_, and _Franche Comté_--parts of modern France--"held of the emperor, and were, in fact, German." _Hugh Capet's_ dukedom was divided by the Seine. He was lay abbot of St. Denis, the most important church in France. THE GERMAN KINGDOM.--With the death of _Louis the Child_ (911) the German branch of the Carlovingian line was extinguished. The Germans had to choose a king from another family. Germany, like France, was now composed of great fiefs. But there were two parties, differing from one another in their character and manners. The one consisted of the older Alemannic and Austrasian unions, where the traces of Roman influence continued, where the large cities were situated, and the principal sees. Here were formed the duchies of _Swabia_ and _Bavaria_, and _Franconia_ (Austrasian France). To the other, consisting chiefly of the duchy of _Saxony_, were attached _Thuringia_ and a part of _Frisia_. In France the royal power, at the start, was so weak, that, not being dreaded, it was suffered to grow. In Germany the royal power was so strong that there was a constant effort to reduce it. Hence in France the result was centralization; in Germany the tendency was to division. In France the long continuance of the family of _Hugh Capet_ made the monarchy _hereditary_. In Germany the frequent changes of dynasty helped to make it _elective_. CONRAD I.--When Louis died, _Conrad_ of Franconia (911-918) was chosen king by the clerical and secular nobles of the five duchies, in which the counts elevated themselves to the rank of dukes,--Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria. Germany thus became an elective kingdom; but since, as a rule, the sovereignty was continued in one family, the electoral principle was qualified by an hereditary element. _Conrad_ began the struggle against the great feudatories, which went on through the Middle Ages. The dukes always chafed under the rule of a king; yet, for the glory of the nation and for their own safety against attacks from abroad, they were anxious to preserve it from extinction. The _Hungarians_, to whom _Louis the Child_ had consented to pay tribute, renewed their incursions. They marched in force as far as _Bremen_. _Conrad_ had wished to reduce the power of Saxony, and to detach from it Thuringia. He was constantly at war with his own subjects. Yet on his death-bed he showed his disinterested regard to the interests of the kingdom. He called to him his brother _Eberhard_, and charged him to carry his crown and crown jewels to his enemy _Henry_, duke of the Saxons, who was most capable of defending the country against the Hungarian invaders. ITALY.--After the empire of _Charles the Fat_ was broken up, a strong anti-German feeling was manifest in Italy. The people wanted the king of Italy, and, if possible, the emperor of the Romans, to be of their own nation. But they could not agree: there was a violent contest between the supporters of _Berengar_ of Friuli and the supporters of _Guido_ of Spoleto. _Arnulf_ came twice into Italy to quell the disturbance, and on his second visit, in 896, was crowned emperor. Civil war soon broke out again. Within twenty years the crown had been given to five different aspirants. They were Germans, or were Italians only in name. _Berengar I_. (888-924) was crowned emperor by the Pope, but had to fight against a competitor, _Rudolph_, king of Burgundy, whom the turbulent nobles set up in his place. _Berengar_ was finally defeated and assassinated. His grandson, _Berengar II_. (of Ivrea) (950-961), had to fly to Germany (943) to escape a competitor for the throne, _Hugh_, count of Provence, brother of _Ermengarde_, Berengar's step-mother, to whom she had given the crown. His relations with _Otto I_. (the Great) led to very important consequences, to be narrated hereafter. STATE OF LEARNING IN THE TENTH CENTURY.--Under Charles the Bald, there were not wanting signs of intellectual activity. _John Scotus Erigena_,--or John Scot, Erinborn,--who was at the head of his palace-school, was an acute philosopher, who, in his speculations in the vein of New Platonism, tended to pantheistic doctrine. His opinions were condemned at the instance of _Hincmar_, the eminent archbishop of Rheims. But after the deposition of _Charles the Fat_ (887), there followed a period of darkness throughout the West. The universal political disorder was enough to account for this prevalent ignorance. But, in addition, the Latin language ceased to be spoken by the people, while the new vernacular tongues were not reduced to writing. Latin could only be learned in the schools; and these fell more and more into decay, in the confusion of the times. The mental stimulus which the study of the Latin had communicated, there was nothing, as yet, in the new languages to replace. THE PAPACY IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.--While Italy was under the rule of _Justinian_ and his successors, the popes were subject to the tyranny of the Eastern emperors. After the Lombard conquest, their position, difficult as it was on account of the small protection afforded them from Constantinople, was favorable to the growth of their influence and authority. By their connection with _Pipin_ and _Charlemagne_, they were recognized as having a spiritual headship, the counterpart of the secular supremacy of the emperor. The election of the Pope was to be sanctioned by the emperor, and that of the emperor by the Pope. But _Charlemagne_ was supreme ruler over all classes and persons in Italy, as in his own immediate dominions. In the disorder that ensued upon his death, the imperial authority in all directions was reduced. The Frank bishops were frequently appealed to as umpires among the contending Carolingian princes. The growth of the power of the great bishops carried in it the exaltation of the highest bishop of all, the Roman pontiff. A _pallium_, or mantle, was sent by the Pope to all archbishops on their accession, and was considered to be a badge of the papal authority. In the earlier part of the ninth century, there appeared what are called the _pseudo-Isidorian decretals_, consisting of forged ecclesiastical documents purporting to belong to the early Christian centuries, which afforded a sanction to the highest claims of the chief rulers of the Church. These are universally known to be an invention; but, in that uncritical day, this was not suspected. They contained not much in behalf of hierarchical claims which had not, at one time or another, been actually asserted and maintained. In the spirit of the decretals Pope _Nicholas I._ (858-867) acted, when this energetic pontiff overruled the iniquitous decision of two German synods, and obliged _Lothar_, king of Lotharingia, to take back his lawful wife, _Theutberga_, whom he had divorced out of regard to a mistress, _Waldrada_. In the tenth century (904-962), when Italy, in the absence of imperial restraint, was torn by violent factions, the Papacy was for half a century disposed of by the _Tuscan_ party, and especially by two depraved women belonging to it, _Theodora_, and her daughter _Maria_ (or _Marozia_). The scandals belonging to this dismal period in the history of the papal institution are to be ascribed to the anarchy prevailing in Italy, and to the vileness of the individuals who usurped power at Rome. CHAPTER III. INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN AND OTHERS: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. INCURSIONS OF THE NORTHMEN.--The _Scandinavians_, or _Northmen_, were a Teutonic people, by whom were gradually formed the kingdoms of _Denmark_, _Norway_, and _Sweden_. Their incursions, prior to _Charlemagne_, were towards the Rhine, but at length assumed more the character of piracy. They coasted along the shores in their little fleets, and lay in wait for their enemies in creeks and bays; whence they were called _vikings_, or children of the bays. By degrees they ventured out farther on the sea, and became bolder in their depredations. They sent their light vessels along the rivers of France, and established themselves in bands of five or six hundred at convenient stations, whence they sallied out to plunder the neighboring cities and country places. They did not _cause_, but they _hastened_, the fall of the Frank Empire. In 841 they burned _Rouen_; in 843 they plundered _Nantes_, _Saintes_, and _Bordeaux_. _Hastings_, a famous leader of these hardy sea-robbers, sailed along the coast of the Spanish peninsula, took _Lisbon_ and pillaged it, and burned _Seville_. Making a descent upon _Tuscany_, he captured, by stratagem, and plundered the city of _Luna_, which he at first mistook for Rome. In 853 the daring rovers captured _Tours_, and burned the Abbey of St. Martin; and, three years later, they appeared at _Orleans_. In 857 they burned the churches of _Paris_, and carried away as captive the abbot of St. Denis. As pagans they had no scruple about attacking churches and abbeys, to which fugitives resorted for safety and for the hiding of their treasures. _Robert the Strong_ fell in fighting these marauders (866). Their devastations continued down to the year 911, in the reign of _Charles the Simple_; then the same arrangement was made which the Romans had adopted in relation to the Germanic invaders. By the advice of his nobles, _Charles_ decided to abandon to the Northmen, territory where they could settle, and which they could cultivate as their own. Rolf, or _Rollo_, one of their most formidable chiefs, accepted the offer; and the Northmen established themselves (911) in the district known afterwards as _Normandy_. _Rollo_ received baptism, wore the title of duke, and thus became the liege of King _Charles_, who reigned at _Laon_, and whom he loyally served. Later the Normans joined hands with _ducal_ France, and helped _Paris_ to throw off its dependence on _royal_ France and the house of Charlemagne which had ruled at _Laon_. It was by Norman help that the duchy of France was raised to the rank of a kingdom, and _Hugh Capet_, in the room of being a vassal of kings of German lineage, became the founder of French sovereigns. Under the Normans, tillage flourished; and the feudal system was established with greater regularity than elsewhere. THE DANES IN ENGLAND.--When, in 827, _Egbert_, the king of _Wessex_, united all the Saxons in England under his rule, the Danish attacks had already begun. In his later years these ravages increased. _Alfred_ (871-901) was reduced to such straits in 878, that, with a few followers, he hid himself among the swamps and woods of Somersetshire. It was then, according to the legend, that he was scolded by the woman, who, not knowing him, had set him to watch her cakes, but found that he, absorbed in other thoughts, had allowed them to burn. Later, _Alfred_ gained advantages over the Danes; but, in the treaty that was made with them, they received, as vassals of the West Saxon king, _East Anglia_, and part of _Essex_ and _Mercia_. Already they had a lodgment in _Northumberland_, so that the larger part of England had fallen into Danish hands. The names of towns ending in _by_, as _Whitby_, are of Danish origin. _Alfred_ compiled a body of laws called _dooms_, founded monasteries, and fostered learning. He himself translated many books from the Latin. His bravery in conflict with the Danes enabled him to spend his last years in quiet. _Athelstan_, the grandson of _Alfred_ (925-940), was victorious over the Danes, and over the Scotch and Welsh of the North. Under _Edgar_ (959-975), the power of England was at its height. He kept up a strong fleet; but, in the time of _Aethelred II_. (the Unready), the Danish invasions were renewed. He and his bad advisers adopted the practice of buying off the invaders at a large price. In 994 _Swegen_ invaded the country. He had been baptized, but had gone back to heathenism. In 1013 England was completely conquered by him. _Aethelred_ fled to _Duke Richard the Good_ of Normandy. CANUTE.--The son of Aethelred, _Edmund_, surnamed _Ironside_, after the death of _Swegen_, kept up the war with his son Cnut, or _Canute_. After fighting six pitched battles with him, _Edmund_ consented to divide the kingdom with him; but in the same year (1016) the English king died. _Canute_ (1017-1035) now became king of all England. He had professed Christianity, and unexpectedly proved himself, after his accession, to be a good ruler. One of the legends about him is, that he once had a seat placed for himself by the seashore, and ordered the rising tide not to dare to wet his feet. Not being obeyed by the dashing waves, he said, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." After that he never wore his crown, but left it on the image of Jesus on the cross. _Canute_ inherited the crown of _Denmark_, and won _Norway_ and part of _Sweden_; so that he was the most powerful prince of his time. His sons, however, did not rule well; and in 1042 the English chose for king one of their own people, _Edward_, called _the Confessor_, the son of _Aethelred_. In the time of Canute, the power of the Danes, and of the Northmen generally, was at its height. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England were ruled by them; and Scandinavian princes by descent governed in Normandy and in Russia. Although a most vigorous race, the Northmen showed a wonderful facility in adopting the language and manners of the people among whom they settled. The effect of their migrations was to diminish the strength and importance of their native countries which they had left. OTHER SETTLEMENTS OF NORTHMEN.--The Northmen made many other voyages which have not yet been mentioned. As early as 852 there was a Scandinavian king in _Dublin_. They early conquered the _Shetland Isles_, the _Orkneys_, and the _Hebrides_. On the northern coast of Scotland, they founded the kingdom of _Caithness_, which they held to the end of the twelfth century. _Iceland_ was discovered by the Northmen, and was settled by them in 874. About the same time _Greenland_ was discovered, and towards the end of the tenth century a colony was planted there. This led to the discovery of the mainland of America, and to the occupation, for a time, of _Vinland_, which is supposed to have been the coast of New England. In _Russia_, where the Northmen were called _Varangians_, _Rurik_, one of their leaders, occupied _Novgorod_ in 862, and founded a line of sovereigns, which continued until 1598. INCURSIONS OF SARACENS.--The _Saracens_ were marauders in Italy, as the Northmen were in France. From _Cairoan_ (in Tunis), as we have seen, they sent out their piratical fleets, which ravaged Malta, Sicily, and other islands of the Mediterranean. These corsairs, checked for the moment by the fleets of Charlemagne, afterwards began anew their conquests. From Sicily, of which they made themselves masters in 831, they passed over to the Italian mainland. Among their deeds are included the burning of _Ostia_, _Civita Vecchia_, and the wealthy abbey of _Monte Cassino_, They landed on the shores of Provence, established a military colony there, pillaged _Arles_ and _Marseilles_, and continued their depredations in Southern France and Switzerland. INCURSIONS OF HUNGARIANS.--The _Magyars_, called by the Greeks _Hungarians_, a warlike people of the Turanian group of nations, crossed the Carpathian Mountains about 889. They overran the whole of Hungary and Transylvania. In 900, in the course of their predatory invasions, they penetrated into Bavaria, and the king of Germany paid them tribute. They carried their incursions into Lombardy and into Southern Italy. They even crossed the Rhine, and devastated Alsace, Lorraine, and Burgundy. Such terror did they excite that their name remained in France a synonym of detestable ferocity. CHARACTER OF THE LATER INVASIONS.--The incursions in the ninth century differed from the great Germanic invasions which had subverted the Roman Empire. The Northmen and the Saracens moved in small bands, whose main object was plunder, and not either permanent conquest, or, as was the aim of the Arabians, the spread of a religion by the sword. The _Hungarians_ alone established themselves in the valley of the Theiss and the Danube, after the manner of the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Goths; and there they remained. The great effect of the last invasion was to accelerate the breaking up of political unity, and the introduction of feudal organization, or the preponderance of local rule as opposed to centralized power. THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND AND ITALY. Later than the events narrated above, there were two great achievements of the Northmen, which it is most convenient to describe here, although they occurred in the eleventh century. They are the conquest of England, and the founding of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. I. THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. The NORMAN INVASION.--The duchy of Normandy had become very strong and prosperous, and, under the French-speaking Northmen, or Normans, had grown to be one of the principal states in Western Europe. _Edward_, king of England, surnamed the _Confessor_, or Saint (1042-1066) had been brought up in Normandy, and favored his own Norman friends by lavish gifts of honors and offices. The party opposed to the foreigners was led by _Godwin_, earl of the West Saxons. After being once banished, he returned in arms; and Norman knights and priests were glad to escape from the country. Edward's wife was _Edith_, daughter of Godwin. They had no children; and on his death-bed he recommended that Earl _Harold_, the son of Godwin, should be his successor. The Normans claimed that he had promised that their duke, _William_, should reign after him. It was said that _Harold_ himself, on a visit to William, had, either willingly or unwillingly, sworn to give him his support. _Edward_, who was devout in his ways, though a negligent ruler, was buried in the monastery called Westminster, which he had built, and which was the precursor of the magnificent church bearing the same name that was built afterwards by King _Henry III_. _Harold_ was now crowned. Duke _William_, full of wrath, appealed to the sword; and, under the influence of the archdeacon _Hildebrand_, Pope _Alexander II_. took his side, and sanctioned his enterprise of conquest. At the same time the north of England was invaded by the king of the Norwegians, a man of gigantic stature, named _Hardrada_. The Norman invaders landed without resistance on the shore of _Sussex_, on the 28th of September, 1066, and occupied _Hastings_. _Harold_ encamped on the heights of _Senlac_. On the 14th of October the great battle took place in which the Normans were completely victorious. The English stood on a hill in a compact mass, with their shields in front and a palisade before them. They repulsed the Norman charges. But the Normans pretended to retreat. This moved the Saxons to break their array in order to pursue. The Normans then turned back, and rushed through the palisade in a fierce onset. An arrow pierced the eye of _Harold_, and he was cut to pieces by four French knights. The Norman duke, _William the Conqueror_, was crowned king on Christmas Day; but it was four years before he overcame all resistance, and got full control over the country. The largest estates and principal offices in England he allotted to Normans and other foreigners. The crown of _William_ was handed down to his descendants, and gradually the conquerors and the conquered became mingled together as one people. EFFECT OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST. CHARACTER OF THE SAXONS.--The Saxons at the time of the Conquest were a strong and hardy race, hospitable, and fond of good cheer, which was apt to run into gluttony and revels. Their dwellings were poor, compared with those of the better class of Normans. They were enthusiastic in out-door sports, such as wrestling and hunting. They fought on foot, armed with the shield and axe. The common soldier, however, often had no better weapon than a fork or a sharpened stick. The ordeals in vogue, as a test of guilt and innocence when one was accused of a crime, were, plunging the arm into boiling water, or holding a hot iron in the hand for three paces. _London_ was fast growing to be the chief town, and eclipsing _Winchester_, the old Saxon capital. A king like _Alfred_, and scholars like _Bede_ and _Alcuin_, not to speak of old chronicles and ballads, show that literature was valued; but the Danish invasions in _Northumberland_, where schools and letters had flourished, did much to blight the beginnings of literary progress. THE NORMAN SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE.--The tapestry at _Bayeux_ represents in a series of pictures the course of the Norman conquest. There we see the costume of the combatants. The Norman gentlemen were mounted, and fought with lance and sword. Of their bravery and military skill, their success affords abundant proof. Although the Normans were victors and masters in England, not only was the conquest gradual, but the result of it was the amalgamation of the one people with the other. The very title of _conqueror_, attached to William, was a legal term (_conquaestor_), and meant _purchaser_ or _acquirer_. There was an observance of legal forms in the establishment and administration of his government. The _folkland_, or the public land, was appropriated by him, and became crown-land. So all the land of the English was considered to be forfeited, and estates were given out liberally to Norman gentlemen. The nobility became mainly Norman, and the same was true of the ecclesiastics and other great officers. All the land was held as a grant from the king. In 1085 the making of _Domesday_ was decreed, which was a complete statistical survey of all the estates and property in England. The object was to furnish a basis for taxation. The _Domesday Book_ is one of the most curious and valuable monuments of English history. Among the changes in law made by William was the introduction of the Norman wager of battle, or the duel, by the side of the Saxon methods of ordeal described above. In most of the changes, there was not so much an uprooting as a great transformation of former rules and customs. ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT.--One of the most important results of the Norman Conquest was the bringing of England into much more intimate relations with the continent. The horizon of English thought and life was widened. One incidental consequence was the closer connection of the English Church with the Papacy. Foreign ecclesiastics, some of them men of eminence and of learning, were brought in. It was this connection with the continent that led England to take so important a part in the Crusades. THEN NORMAN GOVERNMENT.--As regards feudalism, one vital feature of it--the holding of land by a military tenure, or on condition of military service--was reduced to a system by the conquest. But _William_ took care not to be overshadowed or endangered by his great vassals. He levied taxes on all, and maintained the place of lord of all his subjects. He was king of the English, and sovereign lord of the Norman nobles. He summoned to the _Witan_, or Great Assembly, those whom he chose to call. This summons, and the right to receive it, became the foundation of the _Peerage_. Out of the old Saxon _Witan_, there grew in this way the _House of Lords_. The lower orders, when summoned at all, were summoned in a mass; afterwards we shall find that they were called by representatives; and, in--the end, when the privilege of appearing in this way was converted into a right, the _House of Commons_ came into being. In like manner, the _King's Court_ gradually came to be, in the room of the Assembly itself, a judicial and governing Committee of the Assembly. From this body of the king's immediate counselors emerged in time the _Privy Council_ and the _Courts of Law_. Out of the Privy Council grew, in modern times, the _Cabinet_, composed of what are really "those privy councilors who are specially summoned." Committees of the National Assembly, in the course of English history, acquired "separate being and separate powers, as the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government." Thus the English Constitution is the product of a steady growth. MINGLING OF BLOOD AND LANGUAGES.--A multitude of Normans emigrated into England, especially to _London_. The Normans became Englishmen, as a natural consequence. But they affected the spirit and manners of the people by whom they were absorbed. By opening avenues for French influence, _chivalry_, with its peculiar ideas and ways, was brought into England. But it must never be forgotten that the _Normans_ were kinsfolk of the Saxons. Both conquerors and conquered were Teutons. The conquest was very different, in this particular, from what the conquest of Germany by France, or of France by Germany, would be. The French language which the Normans spoke had been acquired by them in their adopted home across the channel. To this source the _Latin_ element, or words of Latin etymology, in our English tongue is mainly due. The loss of the old Saxon inflections is another marked change; but this is not due, to so large an extent, solely to the influence of Norman speech. But the English language continued to be essentially Teutonic in its structure. For a long time the two tongues lived side by side. At the end of the twelfth century, if French was the language of polite intercourse, English was the language of common conversation and of popular writings. Learned men spoke, or could speak, and they wrote, in Latin. NORMAN BUILDINGS.--The Normans built the cathedrals and castles. Down to the eleventh century, the _Romanesque_, or "round-arched" architecture, derived from Italy, had been the one prevalent style in Western Europe. In the modification of it, called the _Norman_ style, we find the round arch associated with massive piers and narrow windows. _Durham_ cathedral is an example of the Norman Romanesque type of building. The Norman conquerors covered England with _castles_, of which the White Tower of London, built by William, is a noted specimen. Sometimes they were square, and sometimes polygonal; but, except in the palaces of the kings, they afforded little room for artistic beauty of form or decoration. They were erected as fortresses, and were regarded by the people with execration as strongholds of oppression. II. THE NORMANS IN ITALY AND SICILY. THE NORMAN KINGDOM OF NAPLES AND SICILY.--Early in the eleventh century, knights from Normandy wandered into Southern Italy, and gave their aid to different states in battle against the Greeks and Saracens. In 1027 the ruler of Naples gave them a fertile district, where they built the city of _Aversa_. By the reports of their victories and good fortune, troops of pilgrims and warriors were attracted to join them. The valiant sons of the old count, _Tancred_ of _Hauteville_, were among the number. They supported the Greek viceroy in an attack on the Arabs in Sicily; but, on his failing duly to reward them, they turned against him, and conquered _Apulia_ for themselves. Under _Robert Guiscard_ (1057-1085), they made themselves masters of all Southern Italy. They had already defeated Pope Leo IX. at _Civitella_, and received from him as fiefs their present and anticipated conquests in Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. Twelve years after, _Robert_, with the help of his brother _Roger_, wrested Sicily, with its capital, _Palermo_, from the Saracens, who were divided among themselves (1072). The seaports of _Otranto_ and _Bari_ were also taken by _Robert_. He even entered on the grand scheme of conquering the Byzantine Empire, but his death frustrated this endeavor. His nephew _Roger II_. (1130-1154) took the remaining possessions of the Greeks in Southern Italy and Sicily, united them in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, and received from the Pope the title of king. In this kingdom the feudal system was established, and trade and industry flourished. In culture and prosperity it surpassed all the other Italian communities. At _Salerno_ was a famous school of medicine and natural science; at _Amalfi_ and _Naples_ were schools of law. But the Norman nobility was corrupted and enervated by the luxury of the South, and by the influence of Mohammedan customs, and modes of thought. During fifty-six years _Roger_ and his two successors, _William the Bad_ (1154-1166) and _William the Good_ (1166-1189), ruled this flourishing kingdom, which then fell by inheritance to the _Hohenstaufen_ German princes. On the mainland and in Sicily, numerous stately buildings and ruined castles and towers point back to the romantic period of Norman rule. NORMAN TRAITS.--It is a remarkable fact, that the Normans, although so distinguished as rovers and conquerors, have vanished from the face of the earth. They were lost in the kingdoms which they founded. They adopted the languages of the nations which they subdued. But while in England they were merged in the English, and modified the national character, this effect was not produced in Italy and Sicily. In Sicily they found Greek-speaking Christians and Arabic-speaking Mussulmans; and Italians came into the island in the track of the conquerors. The Normans did not find there a nation as in England; and they created not a nation, but a kingdom of a composite sort, beneficent while it lasted, but leaving no permanent traces behind. "The Normans in Sicily," says Mr. Freeman, "so far as they did not die out, were merged, not in a Sicilian nation, for that did not exist, but in the common mass of settlers of Latin speech and rite, as distinguished from the older inhabitants, Greek and Saracen." Independent, enterprising, impatient of restraint, gifted with a rare imitative power which imparted a peculiar tinge and a peculiar grace to whatever they adopted from others, they lacked originality, and the power to maintain their own distinctive type of character and of speech. Mr. Freeman has eloquently described the spread of the Normans, "the Saracens of Christendom," in all corners of the world. They fought in the East against the Turks. "North, south, east, the Norman lances were lifted." The Norman "ransacked Europe for scholars, poets, theologians, and artists. At Rouen, at Palermo, and at Winchester he welcomed merit in men of every race and every language." "And yet that race, as a race, has vanished." "The Scottish Brace or the Irish Geraldine passed from Scandinavia to Gaul, from Gaul to England, from England to his own portion of our islands; but at each migration, he ceased to be Scandinavian, French, or English: his patriotism was in each case transferred to his new country, and his historic being belongs to his last acquired home." Norman blood was in the veins of the Crusaders who first stood on the battlements of Jerusalem, and of the great German emperor, _Frederic II_. THE NORMANS. TANCRED OF HAUTEVILLE. | +--Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, _d._ 1085. | | SICILY | +--ROGER, the Great Count, _d._ 1101 | +--Roger (of Apulia, 1127; king, 1130), 1101-1154. | +--WILLIAM I the Bad, 1154-1166, | _m._ Margaret, daughter of Garcia IV of Navarre. | | | +--WILLIAM II the Good, 1166-1189, | _m._ Joanna, daughter of Henry II of England. | +--CONSTANCE (_d._ 1198), _m._ Emperor Henry VI. THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. ORIGIN OF FEUDALISM.--When the Franks conquered Gaul, they divided the land among themselves. This estate each free German held as _allodial_ property, or as a _free-hold_. The king took the largest share. His palaces were dwellings connected with large farms or hunting-grounds, and he went with his courtiers from one to another. To his personal followers and officers he allotted lands. These _benefices_, it seems, were granted at first with the understanding that he might resume them at will. As holders of them, the recipients owed to him personal support. Other chiefs, and land-owners of a minor grade, took the same course. This was the germ of _feudalism_. More and more it grew to be the characteristic method of living and of government in Western Europe after the fall of Charlemagne's empire. The inheritors of his dominion were not the kings of France, of Germany, or of Italy, but the numerous feudal lords. Against the invasions of the Norman, Saracen, and Hungarian plunderers, the kings and the counts proved themselves incapable of defending territory or people. Meantime, the principle of heredity--the principle that benefices should go down from father to son, or to the next heir--had gained a firm footing. Another fact was that the royal offices became hereditary, and were transmitted to the heirs of allodial property. Thus the exercise of government and the possession of land were linked together. In times of danger, small proprietors more and more put themselves under the protection of the richer and stronger: that is, _allodial_ property became _feudal_. This custom had begun long before, in the decadence of the Roman empire, when not only poor freemen, but also men of moderate means, ruined by taxation, put themselves under the protection of the great, and settled on their lands. They became thus _colons_ (_coloni_). In the later times of disorder of which we are now speaking, farmhouses in the country gave place to fortified _castles_ on hill-tops or other defensible sites, about which clustered in villages the dependents of the lord, who tilled his land, fought for him, and, in turn, were protected by him. THE SUBSTANCE OF FEUDALISM.--"Feudality recognizes two principles, the land and the sword, riches and force,--two principles on which every thing depends, to which every thing is related, and which are united and identified with one another; since it is necessary to possess land in order to have the right to use the sword in one's own name (that is to say, to have the right of private war), and since the possession of land imposes the duty of drawing the sword for the suzerain, and in the name of the suzerain of whom the land is held." Feudalism is a social system in which there is a kind of _hierarchy_ of lands in the hands of warriors, who hold of one another in a gradation. There is a chain reaching up from the tower of the simple gentleman to the royal _chateau_, or castle. In this social organization, there are the two grand classes of the _seigneurs_ and the _serfs;_ but the _seigneur_, even if he be a king, may also hold fiefs as a _vassal_. SUZERAIN AND VASSAL.--The _suzerain_ and the _vassal_, or _liege_, were bound together by reciprocal obligations. The vassal owed (1) military service on the demand of the lord; (2) such aid as the suzerain called for in the administration of justice within his jurisdiction; (3) other aids, such as, when he was a prisoner, to pay the ransom for his release; and pecuniary contributions when he armed his eldest son, and when he married his eldest daughter. These were legal or required aids. They took the place of _taxation_ in modern states. There were other things that the vassal was expected to do which were _gracious_ or _voluntary_. If the liege died without heirs, or forfeited the fief by a violation of the conditions on which it was held, it reverted to the lord. The liege was _invested_ with the fief. He knelt before the suzerain, put his hands within the hands of the suzerain, and took an oath to be his _man_. This was _homage_,--from _homo_ in the Latin, and _homme_ in French, signifying _man_. The suzerain might at any time require its renewal. Under the feudal system, every thing was turned into a fief. The right to hunt in a forest, or to fish in a river, or to have an escort on the roads, might be granted as a fief, on the condition of loyalty, and of the _homage_ just described. PRIVATE WAR.--The vassal had the right to be tried by his peers; that is, by vassals on the same level as himself. He might, if treated with injustice, go to the superior: he might appeal to the suzerain of his immediate lord. But suzerains preferred to take justice into their own hands. Hence the custom of _private war_ prevailed, and of judicial combats, or _duels_, so common in the middle ages. ENTANGLEMENTS OF FEUDALISM.--Many suzerains were mutually vassals, each holding certain lands of the other. The same baron often held lands of different suzerains, who might be at war with each other, so that each required his service. The sovereign prince might be bound to do homage to a petty feudal lord on account of lands which the prince had inherited or otherwise acquired. The power of the suzerain depended on a variety of circumstances. The king might be weak, since feudalism grew out of the overthrow of royal power. The king of _France_, with the exception of titular prerogatives and some rights with regard to churches, which were often disputed, had no means of attack or defense beyond what the _duchy_ of France furnished him. Yet logically and by a natural tendency, the king was the supreme suzerain. "Feudalism carried hid in its bosom the arms by which it was one day to be struck down." ECCLESIASTICAL FEUDALISM.--The clergy were included in the feudal system. The bishop was often made the _count_, and, as such, was the suzerain of all the nobles in his diocese. Cities were often under the suzerainty of bishops. Besides their tithes, the clergy had immense landed possessions. The abbots and bishops often availed themselves of the protection of powerful vassals, of whom they were the suzerains. On the other hand, bishops, who were also themselves _dukes_ or _counts_, sometimes did homage for their temporalities to lay suzerains, especially to the king. In _France_ and in _England_, in the middle ages, the feudal clergy possessed a fifth of all the land; in _Germany_, a third. The church, through bequests of the dying and donations from the living, constantly increased its possessions. It might be despoiled, but it could defend itself by the terrible weapon of excommunication. SERFS AND VILLAINS.--In the eleventh century Europe was thus covered with a multitude of petty sovereigns. Below the body of rulers, or the holders of fiefs, was the mass of the people. These were the _serfs_,--the tillers of the ground, who enjoyed some of the privileges of freemen, and who, since they were attached to the _seigneurie_, could not be sold as slaves. The _villains_ were a grade above the serfs. The term (from _villæ_) originally meant _villagers_. They paid rent for the land which the proprietor allowed them to till; but they were subject, like the serfs, to the will of the suzerain; and the constant tendency was for them to sink into the inferior condition. _Slavery_, as distinguished from serfdom, gradually passed away under the emancipating spirit fostered by Christianity and the Church. THE INHERITANCE OF FIEFS.--At first the _Salic_ principle, which excluded females from inheriting fiefs, prevailed. But that gave way, and daughters were preferred in law to collateral male relatives. When a female inherited, the fief was occupied by the suzerain up to the time of her marriage. It never ceased to be under the protection of the sword. In _France_, the right of primogeniture was established, but with important qualifications, which varied in different portions of the country. The eldest, however, always had the largest portion. In _Germany_, the tendency to the division of fiefs was more prevalent. Among the _Normans _ in _England_, and under their influence in _Palestine_, the law of inheritance by the eldest was established in its full rigor. SPIRIT OF FEUDALISM.--Feudalism had more vitality than the system of absorbing all the land by a few great proprietors, which existed in the period of the decline of the Roman Empire. Individuality, courage, the proud sense of belonging to an aristocratic order, were widely diffused among the numerous feudal landowners. The feeling of loyalty among them was a great advance upon the blind subjection of the slave to his master. But the weight of feudalism was heavy on the lower strata of society. The lord was an autocrat, whose will there was neither the power nor the right to resist, and who could lay hold of as much of the labor and the earnings of the subject as he might choose to exact. The petty suzerain, because his needs were greater, was often more oppressive than the prince. The serf could not change his abode, he could not marry, he could not bequeath his goods, without the permission of his lord. THE SAXON, FRANCONIAN, AND HOHENSTAUFEN IMPERIAL HOUSES. HENRY I [1] 918-936. | +--OTTO I, 936-973, Emperor, 962, _m._ | 1, Eadgyth, _d._ of Edward the Elder; | | | +--Liutgarde. | | 2, Adelheid, [2] _d._ of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy. | | | +--OTTO II, 973-983, _m._ | Theophania, daughter of Romanus II, Eastern Emperor. | | | +--OTTO III, 983-1002. | +--Henry the Wrangler, Duke of Bavaria. | +--Henry the Wrangler. | +--(St.) HENRY II, 1002-1024, _m._ Cunigunda of Luxemburg. CONRAD I, [1] 911-918. | +--C. Werner (?) _m._ daughter. | +--Conrad the Red, (killed at the Lechfeld, 955) _m._ Liutgarde, daughter of Eadgyth and Otto I. | +--Otto. | +--Henry. | +--CONRAD II, the Salic, 1024-1039, _m._ Gisela, d. of Hermann II, Duke of Swabia. | +--HENRY III, 1039-1056, _m._ 1, Gunhilda, daughter of Cnut; 2, Agnes, daughter of William, Count of Poitiers. | +--HENRY IV, 1056-1106, _m._ 1, Bertha, daughter of Otto, Marquis of Susa; | +--HENRY V, 1106-1125, _m._ | Matilda, d. of Henry I of England. | +--Agnes, _m._ 1, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, 1080-1105; | +--Frederick the One-eyed, Duke of Swabia, d. 1147, _m._ 1, Judith, daughter of Henry the Black. | +--FREDERICK I, Barbarossa, 1152-1190. | | | +--HENRY VI, 1190-1197, _m._ | | Constance of Sicily, _d._ 1198. | | | | | +--FREDERICK II, 1214-1250, _m._ | | 1, Constance, d. of | | Alfonso II of Aragon; | | | | | +--CONRAD IV, 1250-1254, _m._ | | | Elizabeth, daughter of | | | Otto II of Bavaria. | | | | | | | +--Conradin, _d._ 1268. | | | | | +--Manfred,[5] _d._ 1266. | | | | 2, Iolande de Brienne; | | | | 3, Isabella, d. of | | John of England. | | | +--PHILIP, 1198-1208, _m._ | Irene, d. of Isaac II, | Angelus, Eastern Emperor. | | | +--Beatrix, _m._ | OTTO IV,[4] 1208-1214, | _d._ 1218. | +--CONRAD III,[3] 1137-1152. 2, Leopold III, Marquis of Austria, _d._ 1136. 2, Adelaide, a Russian princess. 1 Conrad I and Henry I seem to have been related. By one account their mothers were the daughters of Emperor Arnulf. 2 Widow of Lothar, King of Italy. 3 Elected 1127 in opposition to Lotharl accepted as his successor. 4 Elected in opposition to Philip; accepted as his successor, 1208; ruined by battle of Bouvines. 5 King of Naples and Sicily after Conrad IV; killed in battle at Benevento against Charles of Anjou. Manfred's mother was Bianca Langia, daughter of a Lombard noble. PERIOD III. FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES. (A.D. 962-1270.) CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE EMPIRE: TO THE CRUSADES, A.D. 1096. I. KINGS AND EMPERORS OF THE SAXON HOUSE (918-1024). HENRY THE FOWLER (918-936).--The envoys who carried to Duke _Henry of Saxony_ the announcement of his election as king of Germany are said to have found him in the Hartz Mountains with a falcon on his wrist: hence he was called _Henry the Fowler_. He is a great figure in mediæval history, and did much to make Germany a nation. He won back _Lorraine_, which had broken off from the kingdom. With it the _Netherlands_--Holland, Flanders, etc.--came to Germany. He united all the five great dukedoms, and governed with wisdom and moderation. At the end of five years, the _Hungarians_ poured in with irresistible force. There was no alternative but to conclude with them a truce for nine years, during which he was to pay tribute. He set to work at once, however, to strengthen the defenses of his kingdom. He built walled towns and fortresses in the eastern districts of _Saxony_ and _Thuringia_, and drafted one out of nine of the men from the population in the marches for military service. The fortresses were to be kept stored with provisions. The oldest towns of Saxony and of Thuringia are of this date. Then he disciplined his soldiers, and trained them to fight, like the Hungarians, on horseback. He conquered the Slavonian _Wends_ who dwelt east of the _Elbe_ and the _Saale_, and established the margraviate of _Meissen_ to repel their attacks. His victory over the Slaves at _Lenzen_ (929) made the north-eastern frontiers of Germany secure. _Eadgyth_, the daughter of _Edward_, king of England, was given in marriage to his eldest son, _Otto_. Henry now felt himself strong enough to throw off the Hungarian yoke, and answered with defiance their demand for the annual tribute. The struggle with them was hard; but they were completely vanquished at _Merseburg_ in 933, and their camp taken. Henry founded the mark of _Schleswig_ as a defense against the _Danes_. This wise and vigorous monarch laid the foundations of the German Empire. He was not only a mighty warrior: he built up industry and trade. He was buried at _Quedlinburg_ in the abbey which he had founded. OTTO I.: THE PALSGRAVES.--Otto I. (936-973) carried forward with equal energy the work which his father had begun. Having been chosen king by the German princes and chiefs at _Aix_, he was presented to the people in the church by the archbishop of Mentz; and they gave their assent to the election by raising the hand. Otto had a contest before him to maintain the unity of the kingdom. He aimed to make the office of duke an office to be allotted by the king, and thus to sap the power of his turbulent lieges. The dukes of Bavaria and Franconia, with Lorraine, and with the support of _Louis IV._, king of France, rose in arms against him. He subdued them; and the great duchies which had revolted against him becoming vacant, he placed in them members of his own family. He confirmed his authority by extending the power of the _palsgraves_, or _counts palatine_,--royal officers who superintended the domains of the king in the several duchies, and dispensed justice in his name. He favored the great ecclesiastics as a check to the aspiring lay lords. He invested the bishops and abbots with ring and staff, and they took the oath of fealty to him. WARS OF OTTO I--Against the _Hungarians_, Otto achieved a triumph. He gained a victory over them at _Augsburg_ in 955, in which they were said to have lost a hundred thousand men. This put an end to their incursions into Germany. He was likewise the victor in conflict with _Slavonians_. He subdued _Boleslav I._ of Bohemia, who had thrown off the German suzerainty, and obliged him to pay a tribute. Under the pious _Boleslav II._, Christianity was established there, and a bishopric founded at Prague (967). The _Duke of Poland_ was forced to do homage to him, and to permit the founding of the bishopric of _Posen_. Against the Danish king, _Harold_ the Blue-toothed, he carried his arms to the sea, the northern boundary of _Jutland_. He erected three new bishoprics among the Danes, and founded the archbishopric of _Magdeburg_, with subordinate sees in the valleys of the Elbe and the Oder. These achievements gave Otto great renown in Western Europe. The kings sent ambassadors to him, and presents came from the sovereigns at Constantinople and Cordova. OTTO I. IN ITALY.--Otto now turned his eyes to Italy. After _Arnulf_, the Carlovingian emperor, left Italy (in 896), that country had been left to sixty years of anarchy. The demoralization and disorder of Italy, the profligacy of the Romans and of the pontiffs,-- every thing being then subject to the riotous aristocratic factions, --rendered unity impossible. For a time (926-945) _Hugh of Provence_ was called king: then followed his son _Lothar_ (945-950). The next Italian king, _Berengar II._ of Ivrea (950), who, like his two predecessors, was an offshoot of the Carlovingian house, tried to force _Adelheid_, the beautiful young widow of Lothar, into a marriage with his son Adalbert. She (being then nineteen years of age) escaped with great difficulty from the prison where she was confined, took refuge in the castle of Canossa, and appealed to the great _Otto_, king of the Germans, for help,--to Otto, "that model of knightly virtue which was beginning to show itself after the fierce brutality of the last age." He descended into Italy, married the injured queen, and obliged _Berengar_ to own him as suzerain (951). _Berengar_ proved faithless and rebellious. Once more _Otto_ entered Italy with an overpowering force, and was proclaimed king of the Lombards at _Pavia_. Pope _John XII_. had proposed to him to assume the imperial office. He was crowned, with his queen, in St. Peter's, in 962. He had engaged to confirm the gifts of previous emperors to the popes. When _John XII._ reversed his steps, allied himself with _Berengar_, and tried to stir up the Greeks, and even the Hungarians, against the emperor, _Otto_ came down from Lombardy, and captured Rome. He caused John to be deposed by a synod for his crimes, and _Leo VIII._ to be appointed in his place (963). But, while Otto was again absent, Leo was driven out by the Romans, and John returned; but, soon after, he died. The Romans then elected _Benedict_ pope. Otto captured Rome once more, deposed him, and restored _Leo_. Benedict was held in custody, and died in Hamburg. On a third journey to Italy, in 966, Otto crushed the factions which had so long degraded Rome and the Church. On this occasion, he negotiated a marriage between _Theophano_, a Greek princess, and his son, also named _Otto_. Thus he acquired the southern extremity of Italy. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.--_Otto_ had taken Charlemagne for his model. The "Holy Roman Empire of the German nation," the great political institution of the middle ages, was now established. In theory it was the union of the world-state and the world-church,--an undivided community under Emperor and Pope, its heaven-appointed secular and spiritual heads. As an actual political fact, it was the political union of _Germany_ and _Italy_, in one sovereignty, which was in the hands of the German king. The junction of the two peoples was not without its advantages to both. It was, however, fruitful of evils. The strength of Germany was spent in endless struggles abroad, which stood in the way of the building up of a compact kingdom at home. For Italy it was the rule of foreigners, of which she might feel the need, but to which she was never reconciled. OTTO II.: OTTO III.: HENRY II.--_Otto II._ (973-983) was highly gifted intellectually, but lacked his father's energy and decision. _Henry_ the Quarrelsome, duke of Bavaria, revolted, but was put down, and deprived of his duchy. Otto obliged _Lothar_, the West Frankish king, to give up his claim to Lotharingia, which he attempted to seize. Otto, in 980, went to Italy, and, in the effort to conquer Southern Italy from the Greeks and Saracens, barely escaped with his life. This was in 982. He never returned to Germany. While _Otto III._ (983-1002) was a child, his mother, _Theophano_, was regent for a time in Germany, and his grandmother, _Adelheid_, in Italy. One of Otto's tutors was _Gerbert_, an eminent scholar and theologian. The proficiency of the young prince caused him to be styled the "Wonder of the World." He was crowned emperor in Rome in 996, when he was only sixteen years old. He dreamed of making Rome once more the center of the world, for his interest was chiefly in Italy. But his schemes were ended by his early death. At this time and afterward, there was deep agitation manifested in Europe, owing to the general expectation that before long the world would come to an end. On this account pilgrims flocked to Rome. _Henry II._ (1002-1024), as nearest of kin to the Saxon house, was the next emperor. Besides waging war with his own insurgent lieges, he had to carry on a contest for fourteen years with _Bokslav_, king of Poland, who had to give up _Bohemia_ and _Meissen_. He founded the bishopric of _Bamberg_ (1007). From this time the German kings, before their coronation as emperors, took the title of _King of the Romans_. The highest nobles were styled "Princes." The nobles lived in the castles, which were built for strongholds, as the power of the lords grew, and private wars became more common. II. THE FRANCONIAN OR SALIAN EMPERORS (1024-1125). CONRAD II.: BURGUNDY: the POLES.--At a great assembly of dukes, counts, and prelates at _Oppenheim_ on the Rhine, _Conrad_, a Franconian nobleman (_Conrad II._), was elected emperor (1024-1039). He was in the prime of life, and went to work vigorously to repress disorder in his kingdom. He had the support of the cities, which were now increasing in importance. At his coronation in Rome, in 1027, there were two kings present, _Canute_ of England and Denmark, and _Rudolph III._ of Burgundy (or _Arles_, as the kingdom was called which had been formed by _Rudolph II._, by uniting _Burgundy_ with a great part of _Provence_). After the death of _Rudolph_, who had appointed _Conrad_ his successor, the emperor was crowned king of _Arles_, which remained thus attached to Germany. But at a later time the _Romance_, or non-German portions, were absorbed by _France_. The _Duchy_ of Burgundy, a fief of the French king, was not included in the kingdom. The _Poles_ invaded Germany in great force. _Miesko_, their leader, was repelled, and obliged to do homage for his crown, and to give up _Lusatia_, which had been received by _Boleslav_ from _Henry II_. In Italy, _Conrad_ issued an edict making the smaller fiefs there hereditary. He seems to have designed to do away with dukes, and to make the allegiance of all vassals to the king immediate. HENRY III.: THE TRUCE OF GOD.--With _Henry III_. (1039-1056) the imperial power reached its height. He was for a time duke of _Bavaria_, _Swabia_, and _Franconia_, as well as emperor. In _Hungary_ he conquered the enemies of _Peter_ the king, and restored him to the throne, receiving his homage as vassal of the empire. He had great success in putting down private war. In 1043 he proclaimed a general peace in his kingdom. He favored the attempt to bring in the _Truce of God_. This originated in _Aquitaine_, where the bishops, in 1041, ordered that no private feuds should be prosecuted between the sunset of Wednesday and the sunrise of Monday, the period covered by the most sacred events in the life of Jesus. This "truce," which was afterwards extended to embrace certain other holy seasons and festivals, spread from land to land. It shows the influence of Christianity in those dark and troublous times. Although it was imperfectly carried out, it was most beneficent in its influence, and specially welcome to the classes not capable of defending themselves against violence. SYNOD OF SUTRI.--In 1046 _Henry_ was called into Italy by the well-disposed of all parties, to put an end to the reign of vice and disorder at Rome. He caused the three rival popes to be deposed by a synod at _Sutri_, and a German prelate, _Suidger_, bishop of _Bamberg_, to be appointed under the name of _Clement II_., by whom he was crowned emperor. After Clement died, Henry raised to the Papacy three German popes in succession. While in the full exercise of his great authority, and when he was not quite forty years of age, he died. HENRY IV.: HIS CONTESTS IN GERMANY.--_Henry IV_. (1056-1106), at his father's death, was but six years old. He had been crowned king at the age of four. _Agnes_ of Poitou, his mother, the regent, had no ability to curb the princes, who were now released from restraint, and eager for independence. By a bold stratagem, an ambitious prelate, _Hanno_, archbishop of Cologne, carried off the young king, and assumed the guardianship over him. He had a rival in the person of _Adalbert_, archbishop of Bremen, whom Henry liked best, as being more indulgent and complaisant, and who at length became his chosen guide. But in 1066 the princes caused _Adalbert_ to be banished from court. They obliged _Henry_ to marry _Bertha_, the daughter of the margrave of Turin, to whom he had been betrothed by his father. The union was repugnant to him, and he sought a divorce; although her patience eventually won the victory, and she became a cherished wife. _Henry_, arrived at man's estate, was involved in a contest with three of the great dukes. It was evident that he meant to tread in the footsteps of his father, and to reduce the princes to submission. Hostility arose, especially between the young king and the _Saxons_, who did not relish the transfer of the imperial office to the _Franconian_ line. The passionate and wilful disposition of _Henry_, and his sensual propensities, were his worst enemies. The strongholds which he erected among the _Saxons_, in themselves a menace, were made haunts of his boon companions and comrades in the chase. The extortion and depredations to which the Saxons were a prey provoked a great insurrection, which at first prevailed; but the excesses of the elated insurgents--as seen, for example, in the plundering and burning of churches--caused a reaction. Henry suppressed the revolt, and dealt with the Saxons with the utmost harshness, treating their dukedom as conquered territory. The Saxon chiefs were now in durance: his enemies on every side had willingly yielded, or were prostrate. The hour seemed to have come for Henry to exercise that sovereignty as Roman emperor over Church and State which his father had wielded; but he found himself confronted by a new and powerful antagonist in the celebrated Pope Hilde-brand, or _Gregory VII_. (1073-1085). HILDEBRAND: INVESTITURES.--The state of affairs in the Roman Church had called into existence a party of reform, the life and soul of which was _Hildebrand_. He was the son of a carpenter of _Soano_, a small town in Tuscany, and was born in 1018. He was educated in a monastery in Rome, and spent some time in France, in the great monastery of _Cluny_. He became the influential adviser of the popes who immediately preceded him. The great aim of Hildebrand and of his supporters--one of the most prominent of whom was the zealous _Peter Damiani_, bishop of Ostia--was to abolish _simony_ and the _marriage of priests_. By _simony_ was meant the purchase and sale of benefices, which had come to prevail in the different countries. The old church laws requiring _celibacy_ had been disregarded, and great numbers of the inferior clergy were living with their wives. In Hildebrand's view, there could be no purity and no just discipline in the Church without a strict enforcement of the neglected rule. The priests must put away their wives. Connected with these reforms was the broader design of wholly emancipating the Church from the control of the secular power, and of subordinating the State to the Church. For this end there must be an abolition of _investiture_ by lay hands. This demand it was that kindled a prolonged and terrible controversy between the emperors and the popes. The great ecclesiastics had temporal estates and a temporal jurisdiction, which placed them in a feudal relation, and made them powerful subjects. It was the custom of the kings to invest them with these temporalities by giving to them the ring and the staff. This enabled the kings to keep out of the benefices persons not acceptable to them, who might be elected by the clergy. On the other hand, it was complained that this custom put the bishops and other high ecclesiastics into a relation of dependence on the lay authority; and, moreover, that, the _ring_ and _staff_ being badges of a spiritual function, it was sacrilegious for a layman to bestow them. CONTEST OF HILDEBRAND AND HENRY IV.--In the period of lawlessness at Rome, Hildebrand had welcomed the intervention of _Henry III._, and even of _Henry IV._, at the beginning of his reign. But this he regarded as only a provisional remedy made necessary by a desperate disorder. On acceding to the Papacy, he began to put in force his leading ideas. The attempt to abolish the marriage of priests was resisted, and stirred up great commotion in all the countries. The legates of the Pope set themselves to stem the tide of opposition by inveighing, in addresses to the common people, against the married clergy, as unfit to minister at the altar. By this means, a popular party in favor of the reform was created. In 1075, in a synod at _Rome_, Hildebrand pronounced the ban against five councilors of _Henry IV._ for simony. At the same time he threatened _Philip_ of France with a similar penalty. He forbade princes to invest with any spiritual office. To oaths of allegiance he did not object, but to any investiture of a spiritual kind. Gregory selected _Henry IV._ as the antagonist with whom to fight out the battle. Henry's ecclesiastical appointments were not simoniacal in fact, although they violated the papal decrees against simony. His real offense was his determination to make the appointments himself. Moreover, in 1075, he ventured to name Germans to the sees of Ferno and Spoleto. Unfortunately he was weakened by the disaffection of the German princes, and, most of all, of the _Saxons_. The fire of rebellion in Saxony had not been quenched: it was still smouldering. _Gregory_ summoned _Henry_ to Rome to answer to the charges made against him. In three German synods held in 1076, the incensed emperor caused empty accusations to be brought against the Pope, and a declaration to be passed deposing him. He sent to the pontiff a letter filled with denunciation, and addressed "to the false monk, Hildebrand." Gregory issued decrees excommunicating _Henry_, deposing him, and declaring his subjects free from their obligation of allegiance. It was the received doctrine, that a heretic or a heathen could not reign over Christian people. The discontented German princes took sides with Gregory. In an assembly at _Tribur_ in 1076, they invited the Pope to come to _Augsburg_, and to judge in the case of _Henry_: he was to live as a private man; and, if he remained excommunicate for a year, he was to cease to be king altogether. HUMILIATION OF HENRY IV.--_Henry_ was now as anxious for reconciliation with the Pope as before he had been bold in his defiance. In the midst of winter, with his wife and child and a few attendants, he crossed the Mt. Cenis pass, undergoing extreme difficulty and hardship, and presented himself as a penitent before Gregory, who had arrived, on his way to _Augsburg_, at the strongly fortified castle of _Canossa_. The Pope kept him waiting long, it is said, barefoot and bareheaded in the court-yard of the castle. Finally he was admitted and absolved, but only on the condition that _Gregory_ was to adjust the matters in dispute between the emperor and his subjects. CONTINUED CONFLICT.--When Henry found that his imperial rights were still withheld, his fiery spirit rebounded from this depth of humiliation. The _Lombards_, with whom Gregory was unpopular, joined him. A majority of the German princes, adhering to the Pope, in 1077 elected _Rudolph_, duke of Swabia, emperor. The Pope took up his cause, and in 1080 once more excommunicated and deposed _Henry_. The emperor proclaimed anew, through synods, the Pope's deposition, and things were back in the former state. The emperor's party appointed a counter-pope, _Guibert_, archbishop of Ravenna, under the name of _Clement III_. _Rudolph_ was killed in battle (1080). _Henry's_ power now vastly increased. He invaded Italy (1081), and laid waste the territory of _Matilda_, countess of _Tuscany_, a fast friend of Gregory. In 1084 he captured Rome. The Pope had found a defender in _Robert Guiscard_, the Norman duke of Lower Italy, whom he had excommunicated, but whom (in 1080) he forgave, and took into his service. _Robert_ released Gregory, who had been besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo. _Hildebrand_ died at Salerno, May 25, 1085. When near his end he uttered the words which are inscribed on his tomb: "I have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore do I die in exile." Of the rectitude of his intentions, there is no room for doubt, whatever view is taken of the expediency of his measures. He united with an unbending will the power of accommodating himself to circumstances, as is witnessed in his treatment of _Robert Guiscard_, and in his forbearance towards _William the Conqueror_, king of England, with whom he did not wish to break. Of this great pontiff, Sir James Stephen says: "He found the Papacy dependent on the empire: he sustained it by alliances almost commensurate with the Italian peninsula. He found the Papacy electoral by the Roman people and clergy: he left it electoral by a college of papal nomination. He found the emperor the virtual patron of the holy see: he wrested that power from his hands. He found the secular clergy the allies and dependants of the secular power: he converted them into the inalienable auxiliaries of his own. He found the higher ecclesiastics in servitude to the temporal sovereigns: he delivered them from that yoke to subjugate them to the Roman tiara. He found the patronage of the Church the mere desecrated spoil and merchandise of princes: he reduced it within the dominion of the supreme pontiff. He is celebrated as the reformer of the impure and profane abuses of his age: he is more justly entitled to the praise of having left the impress of his own gigantic character on the history of all the ages which have succeeded him." LAST DAYS OF HENRY IV.--In 1085 Henry IV. returned to Germany, having been crowned emperor by his Pope, _Clement III_. The _Saxons_ were tired of strife; and, on the assurance that their ancient privileges should be restored, they were pacified. _Hermann_ of Luxemburg, whom they had recognized as their king, had resigned the crown (1088). The last days of _Henry_ were clouded by the rebellion of his sons, first of _Conrad_ (1093), and then of _Henry_ (1104), who was supported by the Pope, _Paschal II_. The emperor was taken prisoner, and obliged to sign his own abdication at _Ingelheim_ in 1105. The duke of Lotharingia and others came to his support, and a civil war was threatened; but _Henry_ died at _Lüttich_ in 1106. His body was placed in a stone coffin, where it lay in an unconsecrated chapel, at _Spires_, until the removal of the excommunication (1111). CONCORDAT OF WORMS.--_Henry V_. (1106-1125) was not in the least disposed to yield up the right of investiture. Hence he was soon engaged in a controversy with _Paschal II_. Henry went to Rome with an army in 1110, and obliged the Pope to crown him emperor, and to concede to him the right in question. When he went back to Germany, the Pope revoked the concession, and excommunicated him. The German princes, as might be expected, sided with the pontiff. The conflict in Germany went on. The emperor's authority, which was established in the South by means of his powerful supporters, was not secured in the North; but, during the last three years of his life, he was at peace with the Church. By the _Concordat of Worms_ in 1122, it was agreed that investiture should take place in the presence of the emperor or of his deputies; that the emperor should _first_ invest with the scepter, and then consecration should take place by the Church, with the bestowal of the _ring_ and the _staff_. All holders of secular benefices were to perform feudal obligations. LOTHAR OF SAXONY.--The princes over whom Henry V. had exercised a severe control opposed the elevation of _Frederick_ of Hohenstaufen, the son of his sister _Agnes_. At a brilliant assembly at _Mentz_, _Lothar_ of Saxony was chosen emperor (1125-1137). He allowed all the Pope's claims, and was crowned at Rome by Innocent II., accepting the allodial possessions of _Matilda_ of Tuscany, as a fief from the pontiff. He carried on a war with the Hohenstaufen princes, _Frederick_ of Swabia, and his brother _Conrad_, who finally yielded. _Lothar_ was helped in the conflict by _Henry the Proud_, the duke of Bavaria, who also became duke of Saxony. Germany under _Lothar_ extended its influence in the north and east. CULTURE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.--The tenth century, owing to causes which have been explained, was a dark age. In the eleventh century circumstances were more favorable for culture. Under the Saxon emperors, intercourse was renewed with the Greek Empire. There was some intercourse with the Arabs in Spain, among whom several of the sciences were cultivated, especially mathematics, astronomy, and medicine (p. 232). The study of the Roman law was revived in the Lombard cities, and this had a disciplinary value. The restoration of order in the Church, after the synod of _Sutri_ (1046), had likewise a wholesome influence in respect to culture. There were several schools of high repute in France, especially those at _Rheims, Chartres, Tours,_ and in the monastery of _Bec_, in Normandy, where _Lanfranc_, an Italian by birth, a man of wisdom and piety, was the abbot. CHAPTER II. THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE CHURCH: TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES, A.D. 1270. THE TWO RELIGIONS.--The Crusades were a new chapter in the long warfare of Christendom with Mohammedanism. "In the Middle Ages, there were two worlds utterly distinct,--that of the Gospel and that of the Koran." In Europe, with the exception of Spain, the Gospel had sway; from the Pyrenees to the mouths of the Ganges, the Koran. The border contests between the two hostile parties on the eastern and western frontiers of Christendom were now to give place to conflict on a larger scale during centuries of invasion and war. STATE OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.--The Greek Christian Empire lay between the Christian peoples of the West and the dominion of the Arabs. That empire lived on, a spiritless body. After _Justinian_, there is an endless recurrence of wars with the Arabs, and with the barbarians on the North, and of theological disputes, either within the empire itself, or with the Church of the West. The Greeks complained that a phrase teaching the procession of the Spirit from the Son had been added in the West to the Nicene Creed. The Latins complained of the use of leavened bread in the sacrament, of the marriage of priests, and of some other Greek peculiarities. The separation of the two churches was consummated when, in 1054, the legate of the Pope laid on the altar of _St. Sophia_, at Constantinople, an anathema against "the seven mortal heresies" of the Greeks. ATTACKS OF RUSSIANS AND BULGARIANS.--Left to itself, the empire showed some energy in repelling the attacks of the Russians and Bulgarians. A number of capable rulers arose. The Russians, of the same race of Northmen who had ravaged Western Europe, kept up their assaults until their chief, _Vladimir_, made peace, accepted Christianity, and married the sister of the emperor, Basil II. (988). The empire between 988 and 1014 was invaded twenty-six times by King _Samuel_ of Bulgaria. But the Bulgarian kingdom was overthrown, in 1019, by _Basil II_. In the twelfth century it regained its independence. THE GREEK EMPERORS.--In the ninth century the Greeks made head against the Arabs, especially by means of their navy. In the tenth century _John I_. (_Zimisces_) crossed the Euphrates, and created alarm in Bagdad. The tenacity of life in the Greek Empire was surprising in view of the languishing sort of existence that it led. After _Heraclius_, there were three dynasties, the last of which, the _Macedonian_ (867-1056), produced three remarkable men, _Nicephorus Phocas_, _Zimisces_, and _Basil II_. But the dynasty of _Comneni_, which, in the person of _Isaac I_., ascended the throne in 1057, had to combat a new and vigorous enemy, the _Turks_, who had now made themselves masters of Asia. One of this line of emperors, _Alexius I_., appealed to the Germans for help. This had some influence in giving rise to the first of the Crusades. In these conflicts the Latins bore the brunt. The exhausted Greek Empire played a minor part. CONQUESTS OF THE TURKS.--The Mussulman dominion of the _Arabs_ had become enfeebled. The _Ommiad_ dynasty at _Cordova_ had disappeared under the assaults of Christians, and of the _Moors_ of Africa. The _Fatimite_ caliphs were confined to Egypt. The rule of the _Abassids_ of Bagdad had been well-nigh demolished by the Seljukian Turks in 1058. They founded in the eleventh century an extensive empire. The sultan, _Alp Arslan_, took the emperor, _Romanus IV. Diogenes_, prisoner (1071), and conquered _Armenia_. _Malek Shah_ invaded Syria, Palestine, Jerusalem, and carried his arms as far as Egypt, while a member of the Turkish family of _Seljuk_ wrested Asia Minor from the Greeks, and established the kingdom of _Iconium_, which was called _Roum_, extending from Mount Taurus to the Bosphorus. After the death of _Malek Shah_, there were three distinct sultanates, _Persia_, _Syria_, and _Kerman_,--the last being on the shores of the Indian Ocean. THE PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM.--The immediate occasion of the Crusades was the hard treatment of the Christian pilgrims who visited the sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem. There the Empress _Helena_, the mother of Constantine, had erected a stately church. Pilgrimages--which had become more and more a custom since the fourth century--naturally tended to the sacred places in Palestine. Especially was this the case in the eleventh century, when piety had been quickened by the _Cluny_ movement. In 1064 a great pilgrimage, in which seven thousand persons, priests and laity, of all nations, were included, under _Siegfried_, archbishop of _Mentz_, made its way through Hungary to Syria. Not more than a third of them lived to return. The reports of returning pilgrims were listened to with absorbing interest, as they told of the spots to which the imagination of the people was constantly directed. What indignation then was kindled by the pathetic narrative of the insults and blows which they had endured from the infidels who profaned the holy places with their hateful domination! In the ninth century, under caliphs of the temper of _Haroun Al-Raschid_, Christians had been well treated. About the middle of the tenth century the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt were the rulers at Jerusalem. _Hakem_ was fierce in his persecution, but his successors were more tolerant. When the Seljukian Turks got control there, the harassed pilgrims had constant occasion to complain of insult and inhumanity. THE CALL OF THE GREEKS.--The Greek emperor, _Alexius Comnenus_, threatened by the Mussulmans on the opposite bank of the Bosphorus, sent his call for succor to all Christian courts. Two popes, _Sylvester II._ and _Gregory VII._, had in vain exhorted the princes to rise in their might, to do away with the wrong and the shame which the disciples of Jesus were suffering at the hands of his enemies. MOTIVES TO THE CRUSADES.--After this, only a spark was needed to kindle in the Western nations a flame of enthusiasm. The summons to a crusade appealed to the two most powerful sentiments then prevalent,--the sentiment of _religion_ and that of _chivalry_. The response made by faith and reverence was reinforced by that thirst for a martial career and for knightly exploits which burned as a passion in the hearts of men. The peoples in the countries formed by the Germanic conquests were full of vigor and life. Outside of the Church, there was no employment to attract aspiring youth but the employment of a soldier. Western Europe was covered with a net-work of petty sovereignties. Feudal conflicts, while they were a discipline of strength and valor, were a narrow field for all this pent-up energy. There was a latent yearning for a wider horizon, a broader theater of action. Thus the Crusades profoundly interested all classes. The Church and the clergy, the lower orders, the women and the children, shared to the full in the religious enthusiasm, which, in the case of princes and nobles, took the form of an intense desire to engage personally in the holy war, in order to crush the infidels, and at the same time to signalize themselves by gallant feats of arms. There was no surer road to salvation. There was, moreover, a hope, of which all in distressed circumstances partook, of improving their temporal lot. THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT.--The prime author of the first Crusade was Pope _Urban II_. He authorized an enthusiast, _Peter the Hermit_, of Amiens, to travel on an ass through Italy and Southern France, and to stir up the people to the great undertaking of delivering the Holy Sepulcher. With an emaciated countenance and flashing eye, his head bare, and feet naked, and wearing a coarse garment bound with a girdle of cords, he told his burning tale of the inflictions endured by the pilgrims. At the great council of _Clermont_, in 1095, where a throng of bishops and nobles, and a multitude of common people who spoke the Romanic tongue, were assembled, _Urban_ himself addressed the assembly in a strain of impassioned fervor. He called upon everyone to deny himself, and take up his cross, that he might win Christ. Whoever would enlist in the war was to have a complete remission of penances,--a "plenary indulgence." The answer was thundered forth, "God wills it." Thousands knelt, and begged to be enrolled in the sacred bands. The red cross of cloth or silk, fastened to the right shoulder, was the badge of all who took up arms. Hence they were called _crusaders_ (from an old French word derived from _crucem_, Lat. acc. of _crux_, a cross). THE UNDISCIPLINED BANDS.--The farmer left his plow, and the shepherd his flock. Both sexes and all ages were inspired with a common passion. Before a military organization could be made, a disorderly host, poorly armed and ill-provided, led by _Peter the Hermit_ and _Walter the Penniless_, a French knight, started for Constantinople by way of Germany and Hungary. They were obliged to separate; and, of two hundred thousand, it is said that only seven thousand reached that capital. These perished in Asia Minor. They left their bones on the plain of _Nicoea_, where they were found by the next crusading expedition. FIRST CRUSADE (1096-1099).--"The Crusades were primarily a Gaulish movement:" in French-speaking lands, the fire of chivalric devotion was most intense. The first regular army of soldiers of the cross departed by different routes under separate chiefs. First of these was _Godfrey of Bouillon_, duke of Lower Lorraine, the bravest and noblest of them all. With him were his brothers, _Baldwin_, and _Eustace_, count of Boulogne. Prominent among the other chiefs were _Hugh_, count of Vermandois; _Robert_, duke of Normandy, who had pawned his duchy to his brother, _William II_., the king of England; _Robert_, count of Flanders; _Raymond_, count of Toulouse; _Bohemond_ of Tarentum, son of Robert Guiscard; and _Tancred_, Robert Guiscard's nephew. The Spaniards were taken up with their own crusade against the Moors. In consequence of the late absorbing struggles between emperors and popes, the Germans and Italians did not now embark in the enterprise. The relation of the Norman dynasty in England to the conquered Saxons prevented the first crusading host from receiving substantial aid from that country. The leaders of the army finally consented to become the feudal dependents of the emperor _Alexius_ while they should be within his borders, and to restore to him such of their conquests as had been lately wrested by the Turks from the Eastern Empire. _Alexius_ was more alarmed than gratified on seeing the swarm of warriors which he had brought into his land. After a siege of seven weeks, _Nicea_ was surrendered, not, however, into the hands of the European soldiers who had conducted the siege, but to the shrewd _Alexius_. At _Doryleum_, in a desperate battle the Turks were defeated; but, on their march eastward, they wasted the lands which they left behind them. The crusaders suffered severely from disease consequent on the heat. A private quarrel broke out between _Tancred_ and _Baldwin_. _Baldwin_, invited to _Edessa_ by the Greek or Armenian ruler, founded there a Latin principality. After besieging _Antioch_ for several months, by the treachery of a renegade Christian, _Bohemond_, with a few followers, was admitted into the city. The Christians slew ten thousand of its defenders; but, three days after, _Antioch_ was shut in by a great army of Turks under the sultan _Kerboga_. The crusaders were stimulated by the supposed discovery of the "holy lance," or the steel head of the spear which had pierced the side of Jesus. The Turks were vanquished, and the citadel of Antioch was possessed by _Bohemond_. The wrangling chieftains were now compelled by the army to set out for Jerusalem. When they reached the heights where they first caught a glimpse of the holy city, the crusaders fell on their knees, and with tears of joy broke out in hymns of praise to God. But, not accustomed to siege operations, and destitute of the machines and ladders requisite for the purpose, they found themselves balked in the first attempts to capture the city. Yet after thirty days, their needs having been meantime in a measure supplied, _Jerusalem_ was taken by storm (July 15, 1099). The infuriated conquerors gave the rein to their vindictive passions. Ten thousand Saracens were slaughtered. The Jews were burned in the synagogues, to which they had fled. When the thirst for blood and for plunder was sated, feelings of penitence and humility took possession of the victors. The leaders, casting aside their arms, with bared heads and barefoot, entered into the church of the Holy Sepulcher, and on their bended knees thanked God for their success. After debate, the princes united in choosing _Godfrey of Bouillon_ as ruler of the city. He would not wear a royal crown in the place where the Saviour of the world had worn on his bleeding forehead a crown of thorns. He designated himself Protector of the Holy Sepulcher. Shortly after, at _Ascalon_, he won a great victory against the vastly superior forces of the Egyptian sultan. Godfrey died the next year (1100), and was succeeded by his brother _Baldwin_, who first took the title of King of Jerusalem. The force of the Moslems, and the almost incessant strife and division among the crusaders themselves, made the kingdom hard to defend. THE NEW KINGDOM.--Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had the most to do with the defense and enlargement of the new kingdom. It was organized according to the method of feudalism. It continued until the capture of Jerusalem by _Saladin_ in 1187. THE MILITARY ORDERS.--The principal supporters of the new kingdom at Jerusalem were the orders of knights, in which were united the spirit of chivalry and the spirit of monasticism. To the monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, they added a fourth vow, which bound them to fight the infidels, and to protect the pilgrims. These military orders acquired great privileges and great wealth. Each of them had its own peculiar apparel, stamped with a cross. The two principal orders were the Knights of St. John, or the _Hospitallers_, and the _Knights Templar_. The Hospitallers grew out of a hospital established in the eleventh century near the Holy Sepulcher, for the care of sick or wounded pilgrims. The order, when fully constituted, contained three classes of members,--knights, who were all of noble birth, priests and chaplains, and serving brothers. After the loss of the Holy Land, the island of _Rhodes_ was given up to them. This they held until 1522, when they were driven out by the Turks, and received from the emperor, _Charles V._, the island of _Malta_. The Templars gained high renown for their valor, and, by presents and legacies, acquired immense wealth. After the loss of their possessions in Palestine, most of their members took up their abode in _Cyprus_: from there many of them went to France. Not a few of them became addicted to violent and profligate ways. They were charged, whether truly or falsely, with unbelief, and Oriental superstitions caught up in the East from their enemies. These accusations, coupled with a desire to get their property, led to their suppression by _Philip V._ in the beginning of the fourteenth century. A third order was that of _Teutonic Knights_, founded at Jerusalem about 1128. In the next century they subjugated the heathen _Wends_ in Prussia (1226-1283). WELFS AND WAIBLINGS.--The emperor _Lothar_ died on a journey back from Italy in 1137. _Henry the Proud_, of the house of _Welf_, to whom he had given the imperial insignia, hoped to be his successor, and hesitated to recognize _Conrad III_. (1137-1152) of the house of _Hohenstaufen_, who was chosen. Conrad required him to give up _Saxony_, for the reason that one prince could not govern two duchies. When he refused, _Bavaria_, also, was taken from him, and given to _Leopold_, margrave of Austria. This led to war, in which the king, as usual, was strongly supported by the cities. Henry the Proud left a young son, known later as _Henry the Lion_. Count _Welf_, the brother of Henry the Proud, kept up the war in Bavaria. He was besieged in _Weinsberg_. During the siege, it is said that his followers shouted "_Welf_" as a war-cry, while the besiegers shouted "_Waiblings_,"--_Waiblingen_ being the birthplace of _Frederick_, duke of Swabia, brother of Conrad. These names, corrupted into _Guelphs_ and _Ghibellines_ by the Italians, were afterwards attached to the two great parties,--the supporters, respectively, of the popes and the emperors. _Henry the Lion_ afterwards received _Saxony_; and the mark of _Brandenburg_ was given in lieu of it to _Albert the Bear_. _Welf I._ was a powerful nobleman, who received from _Henry IV_. the fief of _Bavaria_. When _Henry V_ died, the natural heirs of the extinct Franconian line were his nephews, _Frederick_ of _Hohenstaufen_, duke of Swabia, and _Conrad_. But the Saxons supported the wealthy _Lothar_, who was chosen emperor, and won over to his side _Henry the Proud_, grandson of _Welf I._, to whom _Lothar_ gave his daughter in marriage, and gave, also, the dukedom of _Saxony_, in addition to his dukedom of _Bavaria_. In these events lay the roots of the long rivalship between the _Welfs_ and the _Hohenstaufens_. _Henry the Lion_, as stated above, was the son of _Henry the Proud_. GENEALOGY OF THE WELFS. WELF, Duke of Bavaria, 1070-1101. | +--HENRY the Black, Duke of Bavaria, 1120-1126. | +--Judith, _m._ to Frederic, Duke of Swabia (d. 1147), | the son of Agnes, who was the daughter of HENRY IV. FREDERIC I | (Barbarossa) was the son of Judith, and this Frederic of Swabia. | The Swabian dukes were called _Hohenstaufens_, from a | castle on _Mount Staufen_ in Wurtemberg. | +--HENRY the Proud, Duke of Bavaria 1126, of Saxony 1137; deprived, 1138. | +--HENRY the Lion, _m_. Matilda, daughter of Henry II of England. | +--HENRY the Young, _d_. 1227. | +--OTTO IV, _d_. 1218. SECOND CRUSADE (1147-1149).--The preacher of the second Crusade was _St. Bernard_, whose saintly life and moving eloquence produced a great effect. _Louis VII._ of France and _Conrad III._ were the leaders. The expedition was attended by a series of calamities. The design of recapturing _Edessa_ from _Noureddin_, the sultan of Aleppo, was given up. The siege of _Damascus_ failed (1148). _Conrad_ returned home with broken health. Soon after, Damascus fell into the hands of _Noureddin_, who was a brave and upright leader. Through one of his lieutenants, he conquered Egypt. After his death, _Saladin_, who sprung from one of the tribes of _Kurds_, and was in his service, rose to power there, and set aside the Fatimite caliphate (1171). He was not less renowned for his culture and magnanimity than for his valor. _Saladin_ united under his scepter all the lands from Cairo to Aleppo. In the battle at _Ramla_, not far from Ascalon (1178), the crusaders gained their last notable victory over this antagonist, which served to prolong for some years the existence of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Afterwards victory was on his side: the crusaders were overthrown in the fatal battle of _Tiberias_, and _Jerusalem_ was taken by him (1187). Thus the Latin kingdom fell. The Saracen conqueror was much more humane after success than the Christian warriors had been in like circumstances. FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.--_Frederick I.--Barbarossa_, or Redbeard, he was called in Italy--(1152-1190) was one of the grand figures of the Middle Ages. He was thirty-one years of age at his election as emperor, and had already been with the crusaders to the Holy Land. In him great strength of understanding and a capacity for large undertakings were combined with a taste for letters and art. His aim was to bring back to the empire the strength and dignity which had belonged to it under the Saxon and Franconian emperors. The rulers of _Bohemia_ and _Poland_ he obliged to swear fealty as vassals. He put down private war, and restored order in Germany. The palatinate on the Rhine, formerly a part of Franconia, he gave to his half-brother _Conrad_, who founded _Heidelberg_ (1155). STRUGGLE WITH THE LOMABARD CITIES.--The principal conflict of Frederick I. was in Italy, where he endeavored to restore the imperial supremacy over the Lombard cities, which had grown prosperous and freedom-loving, and were bent on managing their own municipal affairs. They had thrown off the rule of bishops and counts. The burghers of _Milan_, the principal town, had obliged the neighboring nobles and cities to form a league with them. The smaller cities, as _Como_ and _Lodi_, preferred the emperor's control to being subject to Milan. _Pavia_ clung to the empire. But most of the cities prized their independence and republican administration. The Pope and the emperor were soon at variance, and the cities naturally looked to the pontiff for sympathy and leadership. In 1158 _Frederick_ again crossed the Alps, bent on establishing the imperial jurisdiction as it had stood in the days of Charlemagne. The study of the Roman law was now pursued with enthusiasm at _Bologna_ and _Padua_. At a great assembly in the _Roncalian Fields_, Frederick caused the prerogatives of the empire to be defined according to the terms of the civil law. The emperor was proclaimed as "lord of the world,"--_dominus mundi_. In the room of the consuls, a _Podesta_ was appointed as the chief officer in each city, to represent his authority. _Milan_, which had submitted, revolted, but, after a siege of two years, was forced to surrender, and was destroyed, at the emperor's command, by the inhabitants of the neighboring cities (1162). In 1159 _Alexander III_. was elected Pope by a majority of the cardinals. _Victor IV_. was chosen by the imperial party, and was recognized at a council convened by _Frederick_ at _Pavia_. On the death of Victor, another anti-pope, _Paschal III_., was elected in his place; and, on the fourth visit of Frederick to Italy (1166-1168), he conducted Paschal to Rome. In 1167 the cities of Northern Italy, which maintained their cause with invincible spirit, united in the _Lombard League_. They built the strongly fortified place, _Alessandria_,--named after the Pope,--and took possession of the passes of the Alps. The emperor, whose army was nearly destroyed by a pestilence at Rome, escaped, with no little difficulty and danger, to Germany. FREDERICK I. AND POPE ALEXANDER III.--For nearly seven years Frederick remained in Germany. He put an end to a violent feud which had been raging between _Henry the Lion_ and his enemies (1168). In 1174 he was ready to resume his great Italian enterprise. But he did not succeed in taking _Alessandria_. All his efforts to induce _Henry the Lion_ to come to his support failed. He was consequently defeated in the battle of _Legnano_ (1176). The extraordinary abilities and indefatigable energy of the great emperor had been exerted in the vain effort, as he himself now perceived it to be, to break down the resistance of a free people to a system which they felt to be an obsolete despotism. A reconciliation took place at Venice in 1177 between Pope _Alexander III_. and Frederick, in which the latter virtually gave up the plan which he had so long struggled to realize. It was a day of triumph for the Papacy. At _Constance_, in 1183, a treaty was made with the Lombard cities, in which their self-government was substantially conceded, with the right to fortify themselves, and to levy armies, and to extend the bounds of their confederacy. The overlordship of the emperor was recognized. There was to be an imperial judge in each town, to whom appeals in the most important causes might be made. The "regalian rights" to _forage, food_, and _lodging_ for the emperor's army, when within their territory, were reduced to a definite form. The cities grew stronger from their newly gained freedom; yet the loss of imperial restraint was, on some occasions, an evil. FREDERICK IN GERMANY.--After his return to Germany, Frederick deprived _Henry the Lion_ of his lands; and when Henry craved his forgiveness at the Diet of Erfurt in 1181, he was allowed to retain _Brunswick_ and _Lüneburg_. He was to live for three years, with his wife and child, at the court of his father-in-law, _Henry II_., king of England. His son _William_, born there, is the ancestor of the present royal family in England. In 1184 the emperor, in honor of his sons, King _Henry_, and _Frederick_, duke of Swabia, who were of age to become knights, celebrated at _Mentz_ a magnificent festival, where a great throng of attendants was gathered from far and near. In a last and peaceful visit to Italy, his son _Henry_ was married to _Constance_, the daughter of _Roger II_., and the heiress of the Norman kingdom of Lower Italy and Sicily. THIRD CRUSADE (1189-1192).--The old emperor now undertook another Crusade (1189), in which he was supported by _Philip II_. (_Philip Augustus_), king of France, and _Richard_ the Lion-Hearted (_Cæur-de-Lion_), king of England, but of French descent. Having spent the winter at _Adrianople_, Frederick crossed into Asia Minor, and conquered _Iconium_. In his advance he showed a military skill and a valor which made the expedition a memorable one; but at the river Calycadnus in _Cilicia_, either while bathing or attempting to cross on horseback, the old warrior was swept away by the stream, and drowned (1190). His son _Frederick_ died during the siege of _Acre_. _Richard_ and _Philip_ quarreled, before and after reaching _Acre_, which surrendered in 1191. _Philip_ returned to France. _Richard_, with all his valor, was twice compelled to turn back from Jerusalem. Nothing was accomplished except the establishment of a truce with _Saladin_, by which a strip of land on the coast, from _Joppa_ to _Acre_, was given to the Christians, and pilgrimages to the holy places were allowed. _Richard_ was distinguished both for his deeds of arms and for his cruelty. On his return, he was kept as a prisoner by _Leopold_, duke of Austria, by the direction of the emperor, _Henry VI_., for thirteen months, and released on the payment of a ransom, and rendering homage. He was charged with treading the German banner in the filth at Acre. His alliance with the _Welfs_ in Germany is enough to explain the hostility felt towards him by the imperial party. HENRY VI.: POPE INNOCENT III.--Henry VI. (1190-1197) had the prudence and vigor of his father, but lacked his magnanimity. He was hard and stern in his temper. Twice he visited Italy to conquer the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the inheritance of his wife. He waged a new war with _Henry the Lion_ (1192-1194), which ended in a marriage of _Agnes_, the emperor's cousin, with _Henry_, the son of Henry. It was a project of the emperor to convert Germany and Italy, with Sicily, into a hereditary monarchy; but the princes would not consent. He aspired to incorporate the Eastern Empire in the same dominion. While engaged in strife with the aged Pope, _Coelestin II_., respecting the Tuscan lands of _Matilda_, which she had bequeathed to the Church, the emperor suddenly died. His son _Frederick_ was a boy only three years old. On the death of _Coelestin II_., early in 1198, _Innocent III_., the ablest and most powerful of all the popes, acceded to the pontifical chair. Innocent was a statesman of unsurpassed sagacity and energy. He was imbued with the highest idea of the pontifical dignity. He made his authority felt and feared in all parts of Christendom. He exacted submission from all rulers, civil and ecclesiastical. The Empress _Constance_, in order to secure Italy for _Frederick_, accepted the papal investment on conditions dictated by the Pope. After her death _Innocent_ ruled Italy in the character of guardian of her son. He dislodged the imperial vassals from the Tuscan territory of _Matilda_, and thus became a second founder of the papal state. FOURTH CRUSADE (1202-1204).--Under the auspices of _Innocent III_., a Crusade was undertaken by French barons, with whom were associated _Baldwin_, count of Flanders, and _Boniface_, marquis of Montferrat. Arrived at _Venice_, the crusaders were not able to furnish to the Venetians the sum agreed to be paid for their transportation. The Venetians, whose devotion was strongly tempered with the mercantile spirit, under the old doge, _Henry Dandolo_, greatly to the displeasure of the Pope, persuaded them to assist in the capture of _Zara_, which the king of Hungary had wrested from Venice. Then, at the call of _Alexius_, son of the Eastern emperor, _Isaac Angelus_, they went with the Venetian fleet to Constantinople, and restored these princes to the throne. The result of the contentions that followed with the Greeks was the pillage of Constantinople, and the establishment of the _Latin Empire_ under _Baldwin_. Principalities were carved out for different chiefs; the Venetians taking several Greek coast towns, and afterwards _Candia_ (Crete). The patriarch of Constantinople had to take his pallium from Rome. The Latin service was established in the churches. There was no real union between the Greeks and the invaders, but constant strife, until, in 1261, _Michael Paloeologus_, the head of a Greek empire which had been established at _Nicoea_, put an end to the Latin kingdom. CHILDREN'S CRUSADE.--The failure of the stupendous undertakings for the conquest of the infidels was attributed to the wicked wrangles, and still more to the vicious lives, of the crusaders, whose defeat was regarded as indicative of the frown of Heaven on their evil courses. This feeling gave occasion to the Children's Crusade, in 1212. Many thousands of French and German boys made their way, in two distinct expeditions, to _Marseilles_ and the seaports of Italy, in order to be conveyed thence to the Holy Land. But few returned: nearly all perished by the way, or were seized, and carried off to slave-markets. The enterprise grew out of a wild construction of the injunction of Jesus to let little children come to him. OTTO IV.: CIVIL WAR IN GERMANY.--Frederick had been elected king; but, on the death of his father, his claims were disregarded. The _Hohenstaufens_ chose _Philip_, brother of Henry VI.: the _Welfs_ appointed _Otto_, the second son of _Henry the Lion_. Innocent claimed the right, not to appoint the emperor, but to decide between the rival claimants. He decided, in 1201, in favor of _Otto IV_. (1198-1214). _Philip's_ party, however, seemed likely to succeed; but, in 1208, he was murdered. _Otto_, having made large promises of submission to the Pope's requirements, was crowned emperor, and universally acknowledged. When he failed to fulfill his pledges, and began to assert the old imperial prerogatives in Italy, he was excommunicated and deposed by Innocent (1210). FREDERICK (II.) MADE KING.--Innocent was now led to take up the cause of young _Frederick_ (1212). The latter won Germany over to his side, and received the German crown at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1215. _Otto_ was restricted to his ancestral territory in Brunswick. CHARACTER OF FREDERICK II. (1214-1250).--_Frederick II._, on account of his extraordinary natural gifts and his accomplishments, was called _the wonder of the world_. He knew several languages, and, in intercourse with the Saracens_ in Sicily, had acquired a familiarity with the sciences. In many of his ideas of government he was in advance of his time. But his reign was largely spent in a contest with the Lombard cities and with the popes. He is styled by an eminent modern historian, "the gay, the brave, the wise, the relentless, and the godless Frederick." He was often charged with skepticism in relation to the doctrines of the Church. The main ground of this imputation seems to have been a temper of mind at variance with the habit of the age,--a very moderate degree of reverence for ecclesiastical authority, and the absence of the usual antipathy to heresy and religious dissent. FIFTH CRUSADE (1228-1229).--Having caused his son _Henry_ to be elected king of Rome, _Frederick_, in 1220, left Germany for fifteen years. It was the policy of the popes to keep the Sicilian crown from being united with the empire, and the emperor from gaining the supremacy in _Lombardy_. Frederick, at his coronation at _Aix_, and afterwards, had engaged to undertake a crusade. But he had postponed it from time to time. Pope _Honorius III_. had patiently borne with this delay. But when Frederick, in 1227, was about to start, and was prevented, as he professed, by the contagious disease in his army, from which he himself was suffering, _Gregory IX_., the next pope, placed him under the ban of the Church. Nevertheless, the emperor, in the following year, embarked on his crusade. His vigor as a soldier, and, still more, his tact in conciliating the Saracens, enabled him to get possession of _Jerusalem_. No bishop would crown an excommunicate, and he had to put the crown on his own head. That he left a mosque unmolested was a fresh ground of reproach. He negotiated an armistice with the sultan, _Kameel_ (El Kámil), who ceded _Nazareth_ and a strip of territory reaching to the coast, together with _Sidon_. Fifteen years later (in 1244) _Jerusalem_ was finally lost by the Christians. CONTEST OF FREDERICK WITH THE POPES.--On his return to Italy, Frederick drove the papal troops out of _Apulia_. In a personal interview with _Gregory IX_. at _San Germane_, a treaty was made between them, the ban was removed, and the treaty of Frederick with the Sultan was sanctioned by the Pope. Frederick now displayed his talent for organization in all parts of his empire. His constitution for the Sicilian kingdom, based on the ruins of the old feudalism, is tinged with the modern political spirit. His court, wherever he sojourned, mingled an almost Oriental luxury and splendor with the attractions of poetry and song. A sore trial was the revolt of his son _Henry_ (1234), whom he conquered, and confined in a prison, where he died in 1242. The efforts of Frederick to enforce the imperial supremacy over the Lombard cities were met with the same stubborn resistance from the _Guelfs_ which his grandfather had encountered. In 1237 he gained a brilliant victory over them at _Cortenuova_. But the hard terms on which Frederick insisted, in connection with other transactions offensive to the Pope, called out another excommunication from _Gregory IX_. (1239). The Genoese fleet, which was conveying ecclesiastics to a council called by the Pope at Rome, was captured by direction of _Frederick_; and the prelates were thrown into prison. Pope _Innocent IV_. (1243-1254) fled to _Lyons_, and there published anew the ban against the emperor, declared him deposed, and summoned the Germans to elect another emperor in his place. The ecclesiastical princes in Germany chose _Henry Raspe_ (1246-1247), landgrave of Thuringia, who was defeated by _Conrad_, Henry's son. The next emperor thus chosen, _William of Holland_ (1247), made no headway in Germany. During this period of civil war, many German cities gained their freedom from episcopal rule, attained to great privileges, and came into an immediate relation to the emperor. A fearful war raged in Italy between the _Guelfs_ and _Ghibellines_, in the midst of which _Frederick_ died, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Had he been as conscientious and as capable of curbing his passions and appetites as he was highly endowed in other respects, he might have been a model ruler. As it was; although his career was splendid, his private life, as well as his public conduct, was stained with flagrant faults. THE SICILIAN KINGDOM.--The kingdom of the Two Sicilies was bravely defended by _Manfred_, son of Frederick II, in behalf of young _Conradin_, the son of the new emperor, _Conrad IV_. The Pope gave the crown to _Charles of Anjou_, brother of _Louis IX_. of France. _Charles_, after the fall of _Manfred_ at _Beneventum_ (1266), gained the kingdom. _Conradin_ went to Italy, but was defeated and captured in 1268, and was executed at Naples. Such was the tragic end of the last of the _Hohenstaufens_. The unbearable tyranny of the French led to a conspiracy called the _Sicilian Vespers_ (1282); and, at Easter Monday, at vesper time, the rising took place. All the French in Sicily were massacred. _Peter of Aragon_, who had married the daughter of _Manfred_, became king of Sicily. The dominion of Charles of Anjou was restricted to Naples. SPAIN.--The Spaniards had a crusade to carry forward in their own land, which lasted for eight hundred years. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, especially under _Abderrahman III_. (912-961), the Moorish civilization was most brilliant. In _Cordova_, there were six hundred mosques. There were said to be seventeen universities and seventy large libraries in Spain. The caliph's fleets were dominant in the Mediterranean. He was mild in his policy towards Jews and Christians. In the eleventh century the caliphs gave themselves up to luxury, and the control of their forces was in the hands of the viziers. Of these, Almanzor, the general of _Hakem II_ (976-1013), was the most famous. He took the city of _Leon_, and plundered the church of St. James of Compostella, the patron saint of Spain. After this time the caliphate of _Cordova_ broke up into numerous kingdoms. The Christian _Visigoths_ in the north-west had built up the little kingdom of _Oviedo_, which later took the name of _Leon_. The rest of Christian Spain was united under _Sancho the Great_ (970-1035). To one of his sons, _Ferdinand I_, he left _Castile_, to which _Leon_ and the _Asturias_ were united; to another, _Aragon_; and, to a third, _Navarre_ and _Biscay_. It was under _Ferdinand_ that the exploits of the Spanish hero, the _Cid_ (_Rodrigo Diaz_ of Bivar), in conflict with the infidels, began. The complete conquest of the Moors was prevented by the strife of the Christian kingdoms with one another. Under _Alfonso VI_ (1072-1109), they were all once more united. GREAT DEFEAT OF THE MOORS.--The invasion of the _Almoravids_, invited over from Africa by the Mussulman princes (1086), checked the progress of the Christian conquest. These allies of the Arabs built up a kingdom for themselves, reconquered _Valencia_, and taxed to the utmost the power of the Christians to resist their progress. New sects of fanatical Moslems, the _Almohads_, having conquered Morocco, passed over into Spain. The Mohammedans were thus at war among themselves, and were divided into three parties. Military orders were established in Spain; and the kings of _Castile_, _Leon_, and _Navarre_, aided by sixty thousand crusaders from Germany, France, and Italy, defeated _Mohammed_, the chief of the Almohads, with great slaughter, in a decisive battle near Tolosa (1212). The Spanish crusade built up the little kingdom of _Portugal_, and the states of _Castile_ and of _Aragon_. They were destined to play an important part in the history of commerce and discovery. The Spanish character owed some of its marked traits to this prolonged struggle with the Moslems. THE MONGOLIAN INVASIONS.--At the beginning of the thirteenth century, _Genghis Khan_, the leader of Mongolian hordes which roamed over the Asiatic plateau between China and Siberia, conquered China, and overthrew the ruling dynasty. He subdued _Hindustan_ and the empire of the _Chowares_, which had been founded by a _Seljukian_ slave, and spread his power from the Caspian Sea through Persia to India (1218). _Bokhara_ and _Samarcand_ were among the populous cities which were burned with all their treasures by these ruthless invaders. Libraries were converted into stalls for the horses of the brutal conquerors. The sons and successors of _Genghis Khan_ swept over the countries north of the Black Sea, captured _Moscow_ and _Kiev_, burned _Cracow_, and pursued their murderous and devastating path over _Poland_ and _Hungary_, At the battle of _Wahlstatt_ (1241), the Germans under _Henry the Pious_, duke of Liegnitz, were defeated. The victories of the Tartars were frightful massacres. It was a custom of the Mongols to cut off an ear of the slaughtered enemy. It was said that at Liegnitz these trophies filled nine sacks. The Mongol hosts retired from Europe. They attacked the caliphate of _Bagdad_, a city which they took by storm, and plundered for forty days. They destroyed the dynasty of the _Abassids_. They marched into Syria, stormed and sacked _Aleppo_, and captured _Damascus_. For a time the central point of the Tartar conquests was the city or camping-ground of _Karakorum_ in Central Asia. After a few generations their empire was broken in pieces. The "Golden Horde," which they had planted in _Russia_, on the east of the Volga, remained there for two centuries. _Bagdad_ was held by the Mongols until 1400, when it was conquered, and kept for a short time, by _Tamerlane_. The religion of the Tartars was either _Lamaism_--a corrupted form of Buddhistic belief and worship,--or _Mohammedanism_. In China and Mongolia they were _Lamaists_: elsewhere they generally adopted the faith of _Islam_. Their original religion was _Shamaism_, a worship of spirits, akin to fetichism. The later Mongol sovereigns, especially _Kublai Khan_, were ready to promote peaceful intercourse with Europe. It was at this time that _Marco Polo_ resided at their court. SIXTH CRUSADE (1248-1254): SEVENTH CRUSADE (1270).-Two additional Crusades were undertaken under the leadership of that upright and devout king, _Louis IX_. of France. The first (1248-1254) resulted in the taking of _Damietta_ in Egypt (1249); but the next year _Louis_, with his whole army, was captured, and obtained his release after much delay, by the surrender of his conquests, and in return for a large ransom. Not disheartened by this failure, the pious monarch, in 1270, sailed to _Tunis_, where he and most of his army perished from sickness. In 1291 _Acre_, the last town held by the Christians, was taken by the Egyptian _Mamelukes_; and the Crusades came to an end. EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES.--The Crusades were a spontaneous movement of Christian Europe. It was a great tide, which bore away all classes of people. It lends to the Middle Ages an ideal and heroic character. An overpowering sentiment, submerging calculation and self-interest, swept over society. There was infinite suffering: countless lives were the forfeit. The results, however, were beneficent, 1. It is true that the conquests made in the East were all surrendered. The holy places were given up. Yet the _Turks_ had received a check which was a protection to Europe during the period when its monarchies were forming, and were gaining the force to encounter them anew, and repel their dangerous aggressions. 2. The Feudal System in Europe was smitten with a mortal blow. Smaller fiefs, either by sale or by the death of the holders, were swallowed up in the larger. The anarchical spirit was counteracted. _Political unity_ was promoted. 3. There was a lessening of the social distance between _suzerain_ and _serf_. They fought side by side, and aided one another in common perils. The consequence was an increase of sympathy. 4. There was _an expansion of knowledge_. There was a widening of geographical knowledge. An acquaintance was gained with other peoples and countries. To the more civilized Saracens, the crusaders seemed brutal and barbarous. The crusaders in turn were impressed with the superior advancement and elegance of the Saracens. It was not the lord only who beheld distant lands: the serf was taken from the soil to which he had been tied. He drew stimulus and information from sojourning under other skies. 5. A great impulse was given to trade and commerce. An acquaintance was gained with new products, natural and artificial. New wants were created. 6. The cities advanced in strength and wealth. Important social consequences resulted from their growth. WHY THE CRUSADES TERMINATED.--After the thirteenth century it was impossible to rekindle the crusading enthusiasm. The fire had burned out. It seemed as if the idea had exhausted itself in action. This effect was due, (1) to the absence of novelty in such undertakings; (2) to the long experience of the hardships belonging to them, which tended to dampen the romantic zeal that had formed a part of the motive; (3) to the disappointments following upon the practical failure of so prodigious and costly exertions; (4) to an altered condition of public feeling of a more general character. Antipathy to the infidel, the more exclusive sway of religious sentiment, were giving way to a mingling of secular aims and interests. There were new and wider fields of activity at home. The mood of men's minds was no longer the same. LUXURIES INTRODUCED BY THE CRUSADES.--The effect of the Crusades in bringing in new comforts and luxuries, and in thus altering the style of living, was remarkable. At the very outset, a great deal of money, obtained by the sale or pawning of estates, was spent in the outfit of the hundred thousand nobles, who, at the beginning, took the cross. Costly furs, embroidered cushions, curtains of purple dye, pavilions worked with gold, banners of purple or of cloth-of-gold, showy costumes, and shining armor,--such was the splendor that met the eyes of thousands who had never before beheld such a spectacle. The journey to the East brought under the observation of the crusaders, arts and fashions to which they had been strangers, They saw the gilded domes and marble palaces of _Constantinople_, and the treasures of ancient art which had been gathered within the walls of that ancient capital. _Antioch_, with all its wealth, fell into their hands. Later, the merchants of both religions followed in the wake of the armies, and met one another. The superb fabrics of the East were carried to the West by routes which now became safe and familiar. The precious ores and tissues of _Damascus_, and the beautiful glassware of _Tyre_, were conveyed to _Venice_, and thence to places more distant. Silk stuffs of exquisite beauty were brought from _Mosul_ and _Alexandria_. The elegance of the East, with its rich fabrics, its jewels and pearls, was so enchanting that an enthusiastic crusader termed it "the vestibule of Paradise." It was not the nobles alone in the West who acquired these attractive products of skill and industry. The cities shared in them. Even the lower classes partook of the change in the way of living. LIFE IN THE CASTLE.--Even in the earlier days of feudalism, the seclusion of the castle was not without an influence in promoting domestic intercourse and affection. A new sentiment respecting woman sprang up in the Middle Ages, and was fostered by the honor which the New Testament and the teaching of the Church rendered to saintly women. A spirit of gallantry and devotion to woman, partly natural to the Germanic race, and partly arising from causes like that just named, sprang up in the midst of prevailing ignorance and perpetual strife. In the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries life in the castle is found to be very much improved. In the eleventh century it lacked comfort, to say nothing of luxury. The lights were torches of dry wood: even candles were not in general use. Houses in France, England, and Germany commonly had thatched roofs. They were made of logs covered with a sort of clay or mud. They were built with low and narrow doors, and with small windows which admitted but little light. In the middle of the smoky hall was a large, round fireplace. There was no chimney, but only a funnel, which pierced the ceiling. The seats were benches and stools. The feet of the family and guests were kept warm by hay spread beneath them. In the later period the substitution of dry rushes and straw was thought to be a marvelous gain. Beds of straw were introduced into all the apartments of nobles, and even of kings. To sleep on a straw couch was deemed a regal luxury. One consequence of the Crusades was to introduce carpets and hangings into the dwellings of the great. Improved timepieces took the place of the water-clocks, which were a wonder in the days of Charlemagne. In the twelfth century the castle begins to look less like a dungeon. Within and without, it ceases to wear so exclusively the aspect of a fortress. The furniture has more beauty. In the great hall are the large tables attached to the floor, the sideboards, the cupboards, the stately chair of the lord, the couch with its canopy, the chests for the wearing-apparel, the armor on the walls. In the thirteenth century France was covered with chateaux, which, in the case of princes and nobles of highest rank, had their spacious courts, their stables, their lodgings for the servants. All these were within the precincts of the palace. In the great hall were held the assemblies of vassals, banquets, judicial trials. In the wealthiest mansions, there was a main saloon on the floor above, reached by a spiral stairway, and serving also for the principal bed-chamber. There the stone floor gave place to marble of varied colors. Mosaics and other ornaments were introduced. Sculptures, carvings, and mural paintings decorated the apartments. Glass mirrors, imported by way of Venice, began to supersede the mirrors of polished metal. Larger windows, of painted glass, became common among the rich, in the room of the small pieces of glass, or of alabaster, which had before served to let in a few rays of light. Tallow candles came into vogue. Lamps were not unknown. On great occasions, lanterns and wax candles were used for a festive illumination. Chimneys were in use, and about the vast fire-place the family group could gather. The hospitality of the castle was often bountiful. The chase, the favorite amusement, gave life and animation to the scene, and prepared the inmates for the feast that followed. Minstrels enlivened the social gathering. Troops of mountebanks and buffoons furnished amusement, and were sometimes lavishly rewarded. There were singers and buffoons who were attached permanently to the household. There were others who traveled from place to place, and were even organized into corporations or guilds. The _fool_, or _jester_, to whom a large license was allowed, was long deemed a necessary adjunct of the castle-hall. Carriages were little used; rank was indicated by the accouterments of the war-horse or of the palfrey. From the twelfth century onward, the improvement in the comforts of living was not confined to the nobles and to rich burghers in cities. It was shared by the rural classes, notwithstanding the miseries--such as insecurity, and dangers of famine--that belonged to their condition. POVERTY AND DISEASE.--A French writer on the history of luxury, speaking of France in this period, says, "In the cities, we meet at once luxury, certain beginnings of prosperity, and frightful misery. _Beggary_ exists in a form the most hideous: there is an organization of it with grades, and a sort of hierarchy. In the face of sumptuous costumes, of chateaux better adorned, of the nascent wealth of industry, France included more than two thousand _lepers_, and knew not how to treat maladies born of the most imperfect hygiene and the most sordid filth. Such were the extremes. The course of general progress went forward between them." The condition of the poorest class in England was no better. "The absence of vegetable food for the greater part of the year, the personal dirt of the people, the sleeping at night in the clothes worn in the day, and other causes, made skin-diseases frightfully common. At the outskirts of every town in England, there were crawling about emaciated creatures covered with loathsome sores, living Heaven knows how. They were called by the common name of lepers; and probably the leprosy, strictly so called, was awfully common." Such being the life of the poor in villages, and in the absence of drainage and other modern safeguards of health, in large towns, it is no wonder that in the Middle Ages there were terrible pestilences, and that the average length of life was much less than at present. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CHIVALRY.--It was in the period of the crusades that the mediaeval institution of chivalry was ennobled by receiving a religious consecration. Chivalry is a comprehensive term, denoting a system of ideas and customs that prevailed in the middle ages. In the western kingdoms of Europe there was gradually formed a distinct class of warriors of superior rank, who fought on horseback, and were recognized as _knights_ by a ceremony of equipment with arms. Among the customs of the ancient Germans, which are noticed by Tacitus, and in which may be discovered the germs of chivalry, are the remarkable deference paid to women, attendance of the aspiring youth on a military superior,--out of which vassalship arose,--and the formal receiving of arms on reaching manhood. At the outset, knighthood was linked to feudal service: the knights were landholders. In the age of Charlemagne, the warriors on horseback--the _caballarii_--were the precursors, both in name and function, of the _chevaliers_ of later times. The word _knight_, meaning a youth or servant, and then a military attendant, came to be a term of equivalent meaning. The necessary connection of knighthood with the possession of fiefs was broken in the thirteenth century, through changes in the circumstances of warfare. Knighthood became independent of feudalism. It was a personal distinction, frequently bestowed as a reward for brave deeds, and often conferred with elaborate ceremonies, partly of a religious character. When the boy of gentle birth passed from under the care of females, he first served as a _page_ or valet at the court of a prince or the castle of a rich noble. Having been thus trained in habits of courtesy and obedience, he was advanced, not earlier than the age of fourteen, to the rank of _squire_, and instructed in horsemanship and in the use of weapons. He followed his master to the tournament and in battle, until finally he was himself dubbed a _knight_, was clothed in armor of steel, and took on him all the obligations and privileges of his order. The introduction of hereditary surnames and of armorial bearings served to distinguish the members of this order. He who was a knight in one place was a knight everywhere. There were different classes of knights. The "bachelor," who bore a forked pennon, was below the "knight-banneret," who alone had the right to carry the square banner. The banneret was required to have a certain estate, and to be able to bring into the field a certain number of lances, _i.e._, inferior knights with their men-at-arms and foot-soldiers. Each knight was accompanied by his squire and personal attendants. Not seldom two knights joined together in a brotherhood in arms, pledging themselves to sustain each other in every peril. THE VIRTUES OF KNIGHTHOOD.--There were characteristic obligations of knighthood. One was _loyalty_, which included a strict fidelity to all pledges, embracing promises made to an enemy. Another knightly virtue was _courtesy_, which was exercised even towards a foe. The spirit of _gallantry_, inspiring devotion to woman, especially the chosen object of love, and protection to womanly weakness, was always a cardinal trait of the chivalric temper. _Courage_, which delighted in daring exploits, and sought fields for the exercise of personal prowess, was an indispensable quality of the knights. The ideal of chivalry was _honor_ rather than benevolence. The influence of chivalry in refining manners was very great; but, especially in its period of decline, it allowed or brought in much cruelty and profligacy. Its distinctive spirit could find room for exercise only amid conflict and bloodshed, which it naturally tended to promote. CEREMONIES OF INVESTITURE.--When the knight was created according to the complete form, he entered into a bath on the evening previous, was instructed by old knights in "the order and feats" of chivalry, was then clad in white and russet, like a hermit, passed the night in the chapel in "orisons and prayers," and at daybreak confessed to the priest, and received the sacrament. He then returned to his chamber. At the appointed hour he was conducted to the hall, where he received the spurs and was girded with the sword by the prince or other lord who was to confer the distinction, by whom he was smitten on the shoulder and charged to be "a good knight." Thence he was escorted to the chapel, where he swore on the altar to defend the church, and his sword was consecrated. JUDICIAL COMBATS.--The disposition to resort to single combats as a judicial test of guilt or innocence was stimulated by the development of chivalry. There were other ordeals long in vogue, by which it was thought that Heaven would interpose miraculously to shield, and thus to vindicate, the innocent, and to expose the criminal. Such were the plunging of the hand into boiling water, the contact of the flesh with red-hot iron or with fire, the lot, the oath taken on holy relics, the reception of the Eucharist, which would choke the perjurer, and send his soul to perdition. The ordeals were regulated and managed by the clergy. Among the German, and also the Celtic tribes, there are traces of the duel between combatants, for purposes of divination, or of determining on which side in a controversy the right lay. The judicial combat in mediaeval Europe became general. Champions, in cases where the rights of women were in debate, and in other instances where the wager of battle between the direct antagonists in a dispute was impracticable, were selected, or volunteered, to try the issue in an armed conflict. Sometimes professional champions, hired for the occasion, were employed. The custom of judicial combats by degrees declined. The municipalities and the spirit of commerce were averse to it. It was opposed by the Emperor Frederic II. and by Louis IX. of France. The influence of the Roman law helped to undermine it; but the opposition of the Church was the most effectual agency in doing away with it. The modern duel, which survived the judicial combat, is a relic of the ancient custom of avenging private injuries, and of proving the courage of the combatants between whom a quarrel had arisen. In the opening of Shakespeare's play of Richard II., in the quarrel of Mowbray and Bolingbroke, the idea of the judicial combat mingles with the motives and feelings characteristic of the duel when stripped of its religious aspect. FRANCE.--DESCENDANTS OF HUGH CAPET HUGH THE GREAT (_d_. 956), _m_. 3, Hedwiga, daughter of Henry I of Germany. | +--HUGH CAPET, 987-996. | +--ROBERT, 996-1031. | +--HENRY I,1031-1060. | +--PHILIP I, 1060-1108, _m_. Bertha, daughter of Florence I, Count of Holland. | +--LOUIS VI, 1108-1137. | +--LOUIS VII, 1137-1180, _m_. 3, Alice, daughter of Theobold II, Count of Champagne. | +--PHILIP II (Augustus), 1180-1223, _m_. 1, Isabella, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainault. | +--LOUIS VIII, 1223-1226, _m_. Blanche, daughter of Alfonso IX of Castile. | +--(St.) Louis IX, 1226-1270, _m_. Margaret, daughter of Raimond Berengar IV, Count of Provence. | +--2, PHILIP III, 1270-1285, | _m_. 1, Isabella, daughter | of James I of Aragon. | | | +--PHILIP IV, 1285-1314, | | _m_. Jeanne, | | heiress of Champagne and Navarre. | | | | | +--LOUIS X, 1314-1316. | | | | | +--PHILIP V, 1316-1322. | | | | | +--CHARLES IV, 1322-1328. | | | +--Charles, Count of Valois (_d_. | 1325), founder of the house of | Valois, _m_. Margaret, daughter | of Charles II of Naples. | | | +--PHILIP VI, succeeded 1328. | +--Robert, Count of Clermont, founder of the house of Bourbon. ENGLAND.--FROM THE CONQUEST TO EDWARD I. WILLIAM I, 1066-1087, _m._ Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V of Flanders | +--WILLIAM II (Rufus), 1087-1100. | | (Malcolm Canmore _m._ St. Margaret) | | | +--Mary _m._ Eustace, Count of Boulogne | | | +--Maud | | | +--Matilda. | _m._ +--HENRY I, 1100-1135 | | | +--MATILDA (_d._ 1167) _m._ | 1, Emperor Henry V; | 2, Geoffrey Plantagenet, | Count of Anjou | | | +--HENRY II, 1154-1189 _m._ | Eleanor of Aquitaine, etc., | wife of Louis VII of France. | | | +--3, RICHARD I, 1189-1199. | | | +--5, JOHN, 1199-1216, _m._ | Isabella of Angouleme | | | +--HENRY III, 1216-1272, | _m._ Eleanor, daughter of | Raymond Berengar IV of | Provence. | | | +--EDWARD I, succeeded 1272. | +--Adela, _m._ Stephen, Count of Blois. | +--STEPHEN, 1135-1154. _m._ Maud, daughter of Malcolm Canmore and St. Margaret. CHAPTER III. ENGLAND AND FRANCE: THE FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR RIVALSHIP (1066-1217). The emperors, the heads of the Holy Roman Empire, were the chief secular rulers in the Middle Ages, and were in theory the sovereigns of Christendom. But in the era of the Crusades, the kingdoms of England and France began to be prominent. In them, moreover, we see beginnings of an order of things not embraced in the mediaeval system. In France, steps are taken towards a compact monarchy. In England, there are laid the foundations of free representative government. CONNECTION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.--For a long time the fortunes of England and of France are linked together. The kings of the French, with their capital at _Paris_, had been often obliged to contend with their powerful liegemen, the dukes of Normandy, at _Rouen_. When the Norman duke became king of England, he had an independent dominion added to the great fief on the other side of the channel. It sometimes looked as if England and France would be united under one sovereignty, so close did their relations become. DEATH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.--It was while _William the Conqueror_, angry with the king of the French, was burning _Mantes_, in the border-land between Normandy and France, that, by the stumbling of his horse in the ashes, he was thrown forward upon the iron pommel of his saddle, and received the hurt which ended, in the next month, in his death (Sept., 1087). On his death-bed he was smitten with remorse for his unjust conquest of England, and for his bloody deeds there. He would not dare to appoint a successor: it belonged, he said, to the Almighty to do that; but he hoped that his son _William_ might succeed him. The burial service at _Caen_, in the church which he had built, was interrupted by _Ascelin_, a knight, who raised his voice to protest against the interment, for the reason that the duke had wrongfully seized from his father the ground on which the church stood. The family of William made a settlement with Ascelin on the spot by paying a sum of money, and the service proceeded. The whole ground was afterwards paid for. William had left money for the rebuilding of the churches which he had burned at _Mantes_. He gave his treasures to the poor and to the churches in his dominions. These circumstances illustrate in a striking way how, in the Middle Ages, ruthless violence was mingled with power of conscience and a sense of righteous obligation. WILLIAM RUFUS.--William the Conqueror was succeeded by his son, _William Rufus_ (1087-1100), who was as able a man as his father. He promised to be liberal, and to lay no unjust taxes; but he proved to be--especially after the death of the good _Lanfranc_, the archbishop of Canterbury--a vicious and irreligious king. The Norman nobles would have preferred to have his brother _Robert_, who was duke of Normandy, for their king; but the English stood by William. He left bishoprics and abbacies vacant that he might seize the revenues. One of his good deeds was the appointment of the holy and learned _Anselm_ to succeed _Lanfranc_; but he quarreled with _Anselm_, who withdrew from the kingdom. Normandy, which he had tried to wrest from his elder brother _Robert_, was mortgaged to him by the latter, in order that he might set out upon the first Crusade. That duchy came thus into the king's possession. William, while hunting in the New Forest, was killed, if not accidentally, then either, as it was charged, by _Walter Tyrrel_, one of the party, or by some one who had been robbed of his home when the New Forest was made. He was found in the agonies of death, pierced by an arrow shot from a cross-bow. HENRY I. OF ENGLAND (1100-1135): LOUIS VI. (the FAT) OF FRANCE (1108-1137): LOUIS VII. (1137-1180).--_Henry_ was the youngest son of the Conqueror. His wife was English, and was a great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. Her name was Edith, but she assumed the Norman name of _Matilda_. Her mother Margaret, wife of Malcolm of Scotland, was of the stock of the West Saxon kings. Thus the blood of Alfred, as well as of William the Conqueror, flowed in the veins of the later English kings. In the absence of his older brother _Robert_, who was in Jerusalem, he took the crown, and put forth a _Charter of Liberties_, promising the Church to respect its rights, and giving privileges to his vassals which they in turn were to extend to their own vassals. Robert came back from the Holy Land, and tried to wrest England from his brother. He failed in the attempt. After this, _Henry_ got possession of Normandy by the victory of _Tinchebrai_ in 1106, and kept Robert a prisoner in Cardiff Castle until his death (1135). _Louis the Fat_, king of France, espoused the cause of _William of Clito_, son of Robert, but was beaten in 1119 at _Brenneville_. Peace was made between the two kings; but in 1124 _Henry_ of England combined with his son-in-law, _Henry V._ of Germany, for the invasion of France. _Louis_ called upon his vassals, who gathered in such force that the emperor abandoned the scheme. _Louis_ then undertook to chastise those great vassals who had not responded to his summons. _William_, the duke of Aquitane, seeing the power of the suzerain, came into his camp, and offered him his homage. Louis inflicted a brutal punishment in Flanders, where the count, _Charles the Good_, had been assassinated in 1127, and which had failed to furnish its contingent in 1124. He obliged the Flemish lords to elect as their count, _William Clito_, whose rule, however, they presently cast off. _Louis the Fat_ united his son _Louis_ in marriage with _Eleanor_, the only daughter of _William (X.)_, the duke of Aquitaine, and thus paved the way for a direct control over the South. The duchy of _Aquitaine_ included _Gascony_ and other districts, and the suzerainty over _Auvergne, Périgord,_ etc. _Louis the VII._ (1137-1180) was not able to preserve the dominion, extending from the north to the south of France, which he inherited. He plunged into a dispute with Pope _Innocent II._ in relation to the church of _Bourges_, where he claimed the right to name the archbishop. _St. Bernard_ took the side of the Pope. _Suger_, abbot of St. Denis, an able minister, the counselor of the last king, supported _Louis_. The king attacked the lands of _Theobald_ of Champagne, who sided with the Pope, and in his wrath burned the parish church of _Vitry_, with hundreds of poor people who had taken refuge in it. His own remorse and the excommunication of the Pope moved him to do penance by departing on a Crusade. _Suger_, not liking the risk which the monarchy incurred through the absence of the king, opposed the project. _St. Bernard_ encouraged it. The Crusade failed of any important result; but it helped to infuse a national spirit into the French soldiers, who fought side by side with the army of the emperor, _Conrad III_. On his return, on the alleged ground that _Eleanor_ was too near of kin, he divorced her, and rendered back her dowry (1152). LOUIS VII. OF FRANCE (1137-1180): STEPHEN (1135-1154) AND HENRY II. of ENGLAND (1154-1189).--The king of England, _Henry I._, after the death of his son by shipwreck, declared his daughter _Matilda_ his heir. She was the widow of _Henry V._, the emperor of Germany. In 1127 she married _Geoffrey_, count of Anjou, surnamed _Plantagenet_ on account of his habit of wearing a sprig of broom (_genet_) in his bonnet. Henry left Matilda, whom he called the "Empress," under the charge of his nephew, _Stephen of Blois_, who got himself elected king by the barons or great landowners,--as there was no law regulating the succession of the crown,--and was crowned at Westminster. They had sworn, however, to support Matilda. Her uncle _David_, king of Scots, took up her cause; but the Scots were defeated at the _Battle of the Standard_ in 1138. England was thrown into utter disorder by these circumstances: some of the barons fought on one side, and some on the other. There were thieves along the highways, and the barons in their castles were no better than the thieves. The empress landed in England in 1139, to recover her rights. In the civil war that ensued, _Stephen_ was taken prisoner (1141); but _Matilda_, whose imperious temper made her unpopular in London, was driven out of the city. _Stephen_ was released in exchange for the _Earl of Gloucester_. _Matilda_ was at one time in great peril, but contrived to escape in a winter night from Oxford Castle (1142). In 1153 peace was made, by which Stephen was to retain the kingdom, but was to be succeeded by Matilda's eldest son. CRUELTY OF THE NOBLES.--In the time of Stephen and Matilda, the barons, released from the strong hand of his predecessor, were guilty of atrocities which made the people mourn the loss of Henry. "They built strong castles, and filled them with armed men. From these they rode out as robbers, as a wild beast goes forth from its den. 'They fought among themselves with deadly hatred, they spoiled the fairest lands with fire and rapine; in what had been the most fertile of counties they destroyed almost all the provision of bread.' Whatever money or valuable goods they found, they carried off. They burnt houses and sacked towns, If they suspected any one of concealing his wealth, they carried him off to their castle; and there they tortured him, to make him confess where his money was. 'They hanged up men by their feet, and smoked them with foul smoke. Some were hanged up by their thumbs, others by the head, and burning things were hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about men's heads, and twisted them till they went to the brain. They put men into prisons where adders and snakes and toads were crawling, and so they tormented them. Some they put into a chest short and narrow, and not deep, and that had sharp stones within, and forced men therein so that they broke all their limbs. In many of the castles were hateful and grim things called _rachenteges_, which two or three men had enough to do to carry. It was thus made: it was fastened to a beam, and had a sharp iron to go about a man's neck and throat, so that he might noways sit or lie or sleep; but he bore all the iron. Many thousands they starved with hunger.' The unhappy sufferers had no one to help them. Stephen and Matilda were too busy with their own quarrel to do justice to their subjects. Poor men cried to Heaven, but they got no answer. 'Men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep.'" DOMINIONS OF HENRY II.--_Henry_, the son of the empress and of Count _Geoffrey_ of Anjou, was the first of the _Angevin_ kings of England. They had Saxon blood in their veins, but were neither Norman nor Saxon, except in the female line. It was eighty-eight years since the Conquest; and, although the higher classes talked French, almost every one of their number was of mixed descent. The line between Saxon and Norman was becoming effaced. A vassal of the king of France, Henry held so many fiefs that he was stronger than the king himself, and all the other crown vassals taken together. From his father he had _Anjou_; from his mother, _Normandy_ and _Maine_; the county of _Poitou_ and the duchy of _Aquitaine_ he received by _Eleanor_, the divorced wife of Louis VII., whom he married. Later, by marrying one of his sons to the heiress of _Brittany_, that district, the nominal fief of Normandy, came practically under his dominion. He was a strong-willed man, who reduced the barons to subjection, and pulled down the castles which had been built without the king's leave. It might seem probable that the possessor of so great power would absorb the little monarchy of France. But this was prevented by long-continued discord in England,--discord in the royal family, between the king and the clergy, and, later, between the king and the barons. On the Continent, the king of England required a great and united force to break the feudal bonds which grew stronger between the king of France and the French provinces of England. We shall soon see how France enlarged her territory, and how the English dominion on the Continent was greatly reduced. REFORMS OF HENRY.--In order to control the barons, he arranged with them to pay money in lieu of military service. In this way they were weakened. At the same time, he encouraged the small landowners to exercise themselves in arms, which would prepare them for self-defense and to assist the king. Moreover, he sent judges through the land to hear causes. They were to ask a certain number of men in the county as to the merits of the cases coming before them. These men took an oath to tell the truth. They gradually adopted the custom of hearing the evidence of others before giving to the judges their _verdict_,--that is, their declaration of the truth (from _vere dictum_). Out of this custom grew the jury system. BECKET: CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.--The Conqueror had granted to ecclesiastical courts the privilege of trying cases in which the clergy were concerned. On this privilege the clergy had been disposed to insist ever since the fall of the Roman Empire. Under Stephen the energetic restraint exercised upon them was removed. In the early years of the reign of Henry II., there were great disorders among the Norman clergy, and crimes were of frequent occurrence. These were often punished more lightly than the same offenses when committed by a layman, as church courts could not inflict capital punishment. Henry undertook to bring the clergy under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. In this attempt he was resisted by _Thomas à Becket_, who had been his chancelor, and whom he raised to the archbishopric of Canterbury (1162), in the full expectation of having his support. He had been gay and extravagant in his ways, and zealous in behalf of whatever the king wished. But the brilliant chancelor became a strict and austere prelate, the champion of the clergy, with a will as inflexible as that of Henry. The only bishop that voted against him at his election, remarked that "the king had worked a miracle in having that day turned a layman into an archbishop, and a soldier into a saint." In this controversy, the clergy had reason to fear that Henry, if he got the power, would use it to punish and plunder the innocent. At a great council of prelates and barons, the _Constitutions of Clarendon_ were adopted (1164), which went far towards the subjecting of the ecclesiastics, as to their appointment and conduct, to the royal will. _Becket_, with the other prelates, swore to observe these statutes; but he repented of the act, was absolved by the Pope from his oath, and fled to France. Later a reconciliation took place between him and the king. Becket returned to England, but with a temper unaltered. A hasty expression of Henry, uttered in wrath, and indicating a desire to be rid of him, was taken up by four knights, who attacked the archbishop, and slew him, near the great altar in the cathedral at Canterbury (Dec. 29, 1170). The higher nobles welcomed the occasion to revolt. _Henry_ was regarded as the instigator of the bloody deed, and was moved to make important concessions to the Pope, _Alexander III_. His life was darkened by quarrels with his sons. In 1173 the kings of France and Scotland, and many nobles of Normandy and England, joined hands with them. Henry, afflicted with remorse, did penance, allowing himself to be scourged by the monks at the tomb of Becket, or "St. Thomas,"--for he was canonized. The people rallied to him, and the nobles were defeated. The rebellion came to an end. The king of Scotland became more completely the vassal of England. In another rebellion the king's sons rebelled against him: in 1189 _John_, the youngest of them, joined with his brother Richard. Then Henry's heart was broken, and he died. CONQUEST OF IRELAND.--In the first year of Henry's reign, he was authorized by _Pope Hadrian IV._ to invade Ireland. In 1169 _Dermot of Leinster_, a fugitive Irish king, undertook to enlist adventurers for this service. He was aided by _Richard of Clare_, earl of Pembroke, called _Strongbow_, and others. They were successful; and in 1171 _Henry_ crossed over to Ireland, and was acknowledged as sovereign by all the chiefs of the South. A synod brought the Irish Church into subjection to the see of Canterbury. But there was constant warfare, and the North and East of the island were not subdued. The whole country was not conquered until _Elizabeth's_ time, four centuries later. WEAKENING OF GREAT VASSALS IN FRANCE.--The weakening of _Henry's_ power was the salvation of _Louis VII._, who had more the spirit of a monk than of an active and resolute monarch. At his death a new epoch is seen to begin. The dominion of the great vassals declines, and the truly monarchical period commences. It was the change which ended in making the king the sole judge, legislator, and executive of the country. _Louis the Fat, Philip Augustus,_ and _St. Louis (Louis IX.)_ are the early forerunners of _Louis XIV._, under whom the absolute monarchy was made complete. PHILIP AUGUSTUS OF FRANCE (1180-1223): RICHARD THE LIONHEARTED OF ENGLAND (1189-1199).--_Philip Augustus_ was the last king of France to be crowned before his accession. The custom had helped to give stability to the regal system. Now it was no longer needful. Philip was only fifteen years old when he began to reign alone. For forty-three years he labored with shrewdness and perseverance, and with few scruples as to the means employed, to build up the kingly authority. His first act was a violent attack on the _Jews_, whom he despoiled and banished. This was counted an act of piety. He acquired _Vermandois, Valois_, and _Amiens_; refusing to render homage to the Bishop of Amiens, who claimed to be its suzerain. During the life of _Henry II._, Philip had allied himself closely with his son _Richard_ (the Lion-hearted), who succeeded his father. _Richard_ was passionate and quarrelsome, yet generous. He was troubadour as well as king. After his coronation (1189), the two kings made ready for a Crusade together. To raise money, _Richard_ sold earldoms and crown lands, and exclaimed that he would sell London if he could find a buyer. The two kings set out together in 1190. They soon quarreled. _Philip_ came home first, and, while _Richard_ was a prisoner in Austria, did his best to profit by his misfortunes, and to weaken the English reigning house. In the absence of _Richard, John_, his ambitious and unfaithful brother, was made regent by the lords and the London citizens. As nothing was heard of the king, John claimed the crown. Hearing of the release of _Richard, Philip_ wrote to _John_ (1194), "Take care of yourself, for the devil is let loose." _Richard_ made war on _Philip_ in Normandy, but Pope _Innocent III._ obliged the two kings to make a truce for five years (1199). Two months after, Richard was mortally wounded while besieging a castle near _Limoges_, where it was said that a treasure had been found, which he as the suzerain claimed. He had never visited England but twice; and, although he always had the fame of a hero, the country had no real cause to regret his death. JOHN OF ENGLAND (1199-1216).--John (surnamed _Sansterre_, or _Lackland_, a name given to the younger sons, whose fathers had died before they were old enough to hold fiefs) was chosen king. Anjou, Poitou, and Touraine desired to have for their duke young _Arthur_, duke of Brittany, the son of _Geoffrey_, John's elder brother. _Philip Augustus_ took up the cause of Arthur, but deserted him when he had gained for himself what he wished. When Philip wished to reopen the war he took advantage of a complaint from one of John's vassals, Hugh of Lusignan, whose affianced bride John had stolen away. As suzerain Philip summoned John to answer at Paris, and when he did not appear the court declared his fiefs forfeited. It was in this war that Arthur was captured by his uncle and was murdered. This crime served only to strengthen Philip's cause. He seized on _Normandy_, which thenceforward was French, and _Brittany_, which became an immediate fief of the king (1204). He took the other possessions of England in Northern Gaul. There were left to the English the duchy of _Aquitaine_, with _Gascony_ and the _Channel Islands_. The lands south of the Loire John had inherited from his mother. TYRANNY OF JOHN.--John robbed his subjects, high and low, under the name of taxation. Not content with forcing money out of the Jews, one of whom he was said to have coerced by pulling out a tooth every day, he treated rich land-owners with hardly less cruelty. He had not, like _Henry II._, the support of the people, and added to his unpopularity by hiring soldiers from abroad to help him in his oppression. JOHN'S QUARREL WITH THE POPE: MAGNA CHARTA.--As rash as he was tyrannical, John engaged in a quarrel with Pope _Innocent III_. The monks of Canterbury appointed as archbishop, not the king's treasurer, whom he bade them choose, but another. The Pope neither heeded the king nor confirmed their choice, but made them elect a religious and learned Englishman, _Stephen Langton_. _John_, in a rage, drove the monks out of Canterbury, and refused to recognize the election. The Pope excommunicated him, and laid England under an _interdict_; that is, he forbade services in the churches, and sacraments except for infants and the dying; marriages were to take place in the church porch, and the dead were to be buried without prayer and in unconsecrated ground. As _John_ paid no regard to this measure of coercion, _Innocent_ declared him deposed, and charged the king of France to carry the sentence into effect (1213). Resisted at home, and threatened from abroad, _John_ now made an abject submission, laying his crown at the feet of _Pandulph_, the Pope's legate. He made himself the vassal of the Pope, receiving back from him the kingdoms of England and Ireland, which he had delivered to _Innocent_, and engaging that a yearly rent should be paid to Rome by the king of England and his heirs. _Philip_ had to give up his plan of invading England. _John's_ tyranny and licentiousness had become intolerable. _Langton_, a man of large views, and the English Church, united with the barons in extorting from him, in the meadow of _Runnymede_,--an island in the Thames, near Windsor,--the _Magna Charta_, the foundation of English constitutional liberty. It secured two great principles: _first_, that the king could take the money of his subjects only when it was voted to him for public objects; and _secondly_, that he could not punish or imprison them at his will, but could only punish them after conviction, according to law, by their countrymen. The Great Charter is based on the charter of Henry I. It precisely defines and secures old customs, 1. It recognizes the rights of the Church. 2. _It secures person and property from seizure and spoliation without the judgment of peers or the law of the land._ 3. There are regulations for courts of law. 4. Exactions by the lord are limited to the three customary feudal aids. The benefits granted to the vassal are to be extended to the lower tenants. 5, How the Great Council is to be composed, and how convened, is defined. 6. The "liberties and free customs" of London and of other towns are secured. 7. Protection is given against certain oppressive exactions of the Crown. 8. The safety of merchants against exactions in coming into England, and in going out, and in traveling through it, is guaranteed. 9. There is some provision in favor of the villain. WAR WITH FRANCE.--_John_ joined in a great coalition against _Philip Augustus_. He was to attack France in the south-west; while the emperor, _Otto IV._, and the counts of Flanders and Boulogne, with all the princes of the Low Countries, were to make their attack on the north. It was a war of the feudal aristocracy against the king of the French. At the great battle of _Bouvines_ (1214) the French were victorious. The success, in the glory of which the communes shared, added no territory to France; but it awakened a national spirit. _John_ was beaten in _Poitou_, and went home. DEPOSITION OF JOHN.--In England, _John_ found that all his exertions against the _Charter_, even with the aid of Rome, were unavailing. In a spirit of vengeance, he brought in mercenary freebooters, and marched into Scotland, robbing and burning as he went. Every morning he burned the house in which he had lodged for the night. At length the English barons offered the crown to _Louis_, the eldest son of _Philip Augustus_; but _John_ died in 1216, and _Louis_ found himself deserted. He had shown a disposition to give lands to the French. THE ALBIGENSIAN WAR.--The war against the _Albigenses_ began in the reign of _Philip_; but he pleaded that his hands were full, and left it to be waged by the nobles. That sect had its seat in the south of France, and derived its name from the city of _Albi_. It held certain heterodox tenets, and rejected the authority of the priesthood. In 1208, under _Innocent III._, a crusade was preached against _Raymond VI._, count of Toulouse, in whose territory most of them were found. This was first conducted by _Simon de Montfort_, and then by Philip's son, _Louis VIII._, the county of _Toulouse_ being a fief of France. The result of the desolating conflict was, that part of the count's fiefs were in 1229 transferred to the crown, and the country itself in 1270. In that year, at the council of Toulouse, the _Inquisition_, a special ecclesiastical tribunal, was organized to complete the extermination of the _Albigensians_ who had escaped the sword. The advantages resulting from the crushing of the sovereignties of the south were sure to come to the French monarchy. But _Philip_ left it to the nobles and to his successors to win the enticing prize. The first period of rivalry between England and France ends with _John_ and _Philip Augustus_. For one hundred and twenty years, each country pursues its course separately. Monarchy grows stronger in France: constitutional government advances in England. LOUIS IX. OF FRANCE (1226-1270).--In _Louis IX._ (St. Louis) France had a king so noble and just that the monarchy was sanctified in the eyes of the people. At his accession he was but eleven years old, and with his mother, _Blanche_ of Castile, had to encounter for sixteen years a combination of great barons determined to uphold feudalism. Most of them staid away from his coronation. When the young king and his mother approached _Paris_, they found the way barred; but it was opened by the devoted burghers, who came forth with arms in their hands to bring them in. The magistrates of the communes swore to defend the king and his friends (1228). They were supported by the Papacy. In 1231 the war ended in a way favorable to royalty. The treaty of 1229 with _Raymond VII._, count of _Toulouse_, led to the gradual absorption of the South. _Theobald_ of _Champagne_ became king of _Navarre_, and sold to the crown _Chartres_ and other valuable fiefs. In the earlier period of his reign Louis was guided by his wise, even if imperious, mother, who held the regency. ENGLAND AND FRANCE.--In 1243 _Louis_ defeated _Henry III._ of England, who had come over to help the count of _La Marche_ and other rebellious nobles. In 1245 _Charles of Anjou_, the king's brother, married _Beatrice_, through whom _Provence_ passed to the house of Anjou. The king's long absence (1248-1254), during the sixth Crusade, had no other result but to show to all that he combined in himself the qualities of a hero and of a saint. After his return, his government was wise and just, and marked by sympathy with his people. In 1259 he made a treaty with _Henry III._, yielding to him the _Limousin, Périgord_, and parts of _Saintonge_, for which Henry relinquished all claims on the rest of France. _Louis_ fostered learning. The University of Paris flourished under his care. In his reign _Robert of Sorbon_ (1252) founded _the Sorbonne_, the famous college for ecclesiastics which bears his name. CIVIL POLICY OF LOUIS.--In his civil policy _Louis_ availed himself of the Roman law to undermine feudal privileges. The legists enlarged the number of cases reserved for the king himself to adjudicate. He established new courts of justice, higher than the feudal courts, and the right of final appeal to himself. He made the king's "Parliament" a great judicial body. He abolished in his domains the judicial combat, or _duel_,--the old German method of deciding between the accused and the accuser. He liberated many serfs. But, mild as he was, he had no mercy for Jews and heretics. In his intercourse with other nations, he blended firmness and courage with a fair and unselfish spirit. He refused to comply with the request of the Pope to take up arms against the emperor, _Frederic II._; but he threatened to make war upon him if he did not release the prelates whom he had captured on their way to Rome. The "Pragmatic Sanction" of St. Louis is of doubtful genuineness. It is an assertion of the liberties of the Gallican Church. With loyalty to the Holy See, and an exalted piety, Louis defended the rights of all, and did not allow the clergy to attain to an unjust control. _Voltaire_ said of him, "It is not given to man to carry virtue to a higher point." He stands in the scale of merit on a level with _Alfred_ of England. PARLIAMENTS IN FRANCE.--The word _parliament_ in French history has a very different meaning from that which it bears when applied to the English institution of the same name. There were thirteen parliaments in France, each having a jurisdiction of its own. They were established at different times. Of these the Parliament of Paris was the oldest and by far the most important. The king and other suzerains administered justice, each in his own domain. The Parliament of Paris was originally a portion of the king's council that was set apart to hear causes among the fiefs. It considered all appeals and judicial questions. But in the reign of _Louis IX._, commissioners, or _baillis_, of the king, held provincial courts of appeal in his name. The great suzerains established, each in his own fief, like tribunals, but of more restricted authority. Louis IX. made it optional with the vassal to be tried by his immediate suzerain, or in the king's courts, which were subordinate to his council. As time went on, the authority of the royal tribunals increased, as that of the feudal courts grew weaker. In the Parliament of Paris, a corps of legists who understood the Roman law were admitted with the lords, knights, and prelates. More and more these "counsellors" were left to themselves. Later there was a division into _Chambers_, of which the _Grand Chamber_ for the final hearing and decision of appeals was of principal importance. _Philip the Fair_ (1303) gave a more complete organization to Parliament. He provided that it should hold two annual sittings at Paris. Thus there grew up a judicial aristocracy. After 1368 the members were appointed for life. At length, under _Henry IV._, the seats in Parliament became hereditary. The great magistrates thus constituted wore robes of ermine, or of scarlet adorned with velvet. _The Palace of Justice_ (_Palais de Justice_), on an island in the Seine, was given to Parliament for its sessions by _Charles V_. In its hall scenes of tragic interest, including, in modern times, the condemnation of _Marie Antoinette_ and of _Robespierre_, have taken place. The crown was represented by a great officer, a public prosecutor or attorney-general (_procureur général_). He and his assistants were termed the "king's people" (_gens du roi_). They had the privilege of speaking with their hats on. It was an ancient custom to enroll the royal ordinances in the parliamentary records. Gradually it came to be considered that no statute or decree had the force of law unless it was entered on the registers of Parliament. Great conflicts occurred with the kings when Parliament refused "to register" their edicts or treaties. Then the king would hold "a bed of justice,"--so called from the cushions of the seat where he sat in the hall of Parliament, whither he came in person to command them to register the obnoxious enactment. This royal intervention could not be resisted: commonly the enrollment would be made, but sometimes under a protest. Each of the local parliaments claimed to be supreme in its own province: they were held to constitute together one institution, and all the judges were on a level. Attempts at political interference by Parliaments, the kings resisted. At the French Revolution in 1790, the Parliaments were finally abolished. HENRY III. (1216-1272).--John's eldest son, _Henry_, when he was crowned by the royalists, was only nine years old. For a short time he had a wise guardian in _William, Earl of Pembroke_. In two battles, one on the land and one on the sea, _Louis VIII._ (1223-1226), son of _Philip Augustus_ of France, was defeated. He made peace, and returned to France. Henry married _Eleanor_, the daughter of _Raymond_, count of _Provence_,--a beautiful and accomplished woman, but she was unpopular in England. The king, as well as his wife, lavished offices, honors, and lands upon foreigners. He was a weak prince, and unwisely accepted for his second son, _Edmund_, the crown of the _Two Sicilies_, which could be won only at the expense of England. This measure induced the barons to compel Henry to a measure equivalent to the placing of authority in the hands of a council. This brought on a war between the king and the barons. The latter were led by _Simon de Montfort_ (the second of the name), who had inherited the earldom of Leicester through his mother. Through him PARLIAMENT assumed the form which it has since retained. The greater barons, the lords or peers, with the bishops and principal abbots, came together in person, and grew into the House of Lords. The freeholders of each county had sent some of the knights to represent them. The attendance of these knights now began to be regular; but besides the two knights from each county, who were like the county members of our own time, _Simon_ caused each _city_ and _borough_ to send two of their citizens, or _burgesses_. Thus the _House of Commons_ arose. _Simon_ defeated _Henry_ at _Lewes_ (1264): but the barons flocked to the standard of Prince _Edward_, who escaped from custody; and Simon was defeated and slain at the battle of _Evesham_ in 1265. _Henry_ was restored to power. He died in 1272, and was buried in _Westminster Abbey_, which he had begun to rebuild. Under Henry, the _Great Charter_, with some alterations, was three times confirmed. A _Charter of the Forest_ was added, providing that no man should lose life or limb for taking the king's game. Cruel laws for the protection of game in the forests or uncultivated lands had been a standing grievance from the days of the Norman Conquest. The confirming of the _Great Charter_ in 1225 was made the condition of a grant of money from the National Council to the king. When the bishops, in 1236, desired to have the laws of inheritance conformed to the rules of the Church, the barons made the laconic answer, "We will not change the laws of England" (_Nolumus leges Anglice mutare_). CHAPTER IV. RISE OF THE BURGHER CLASS: SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF THE CRUSADES. RISE OF THE CITIES.--Under feudalism, only two classes present themselves to view,--the nobility and the clergy on the one hand, and the serfs on the other. This was the character of society in the ninth century. In the tenth century we see the beginnings of an intermediate class, the germ of "the third estate." This change appears in the cities, where the _burghers_ begin to increase in intelligence, and to manifest a spirit of independence. From this time, for several centuries, their power and privileges continued to grow. GROWTH OF THE CITIES.--The same need of defense that led to the building of towers and castles in the country drove men within the walls of towns. Industry and trade developed intelligence, and produced wealth. But _burghers_ under the feudal rule were obliged to pay heavy tolls and taxes. For example, for protection on a journey through any patch of territory, they were required to make a payment. Besides the regular exactions, they were exposed to most vexatious depredations of a lawless kind. As they advanced in thrift and wealth, communities that were made up largely of artisans and tradesmen armed themselves for their own defense. From self-defense they proceeded farther, and extorted exemptions and privileges from the _suzerain_, the effect of which was to give them a high though limited degree of self-government. ORIGIN OF MUNICIPAL FREEDOM.--It has been supposed that municipal government in the Middle Ages was a revival of old Roman rights and customs, and thus an heirloom from antiquity. The cities--those on the Rhine and in Gaul, for example--were of Roman origin. But the view of scholars at present is, that municipal liberty, such as existed in the Middle Ages, was a native product of the Germanic peoples. The cities were incorporated into the feudal system. They were subject to a lay lord or to a bishop. In _Italy_, however, they struggled after a more complete republican system. CITIES AND SUZERAINS.--In the conflicts which were waged by the cities, they were sometimes helped by the suzerain against the king, and sometimes by the king against the nearer suzerain. In _England_ the cities were apt to ally themselves with the nobility against the king: in _Germany_ and _France_ the reverse was the fact. But in _Germany_ the cities which came into an immediate relation to the sovereign were less closely dependent on him than were the cities in France on the French king. TWO CLASSES OF CITIES.--Not only did the cities wrest from the lords a large measure of freedom: it was often freely conceded to them. Nobles, in order to bring together artisans, and to build up a community in their own neighborhood, granted extraordinary privileges. _Charters_ were given to cities by the king. Communities thus formed differed from the other class of cities in not having the same privilege of administering justice within their limits. GERMAN CITIES.--The cities in Germany increased in number on the fall of the Hohenstaufen family. They made the inclosure of their walls a place of refuge, as the nobles did the vicinity of their castles. They eventually gained admittance to the _Diets_ of the empire. They formed _leagues_ among themselves, which, however, did not become political bodies, any more than the Italian leagues. THE ROMAN LAW.--The revised study of the Roman law brought in a code at variance with feudal principles. The middle class, that was growing up in the great commercial cities, availed themselves, as far as they could, of its principles in regard to the inheritance of property. The _legists_ helped in a thousand ways to emancipate them from the yoke of feudal traditions. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.--The cities themselves often had vassals, and became suzerains. Government rested in the hands of the magistrates. They were chosen by the general assembly of the inhabitants, who were called together by the tolling of the bell. The magistrates governed without much restraint until another election, unless there were popular outbreaks, "which were at this time," as Guizot remarks, "the great guarantee for good government." Where the courage and spirit of burghers were displayed was in the maintenance of their own privileges, or purely in self-defense. In all other relations they showed the utmost humility; and in the twelfth century, when their emancipation is commonly dated, they did not pretend to interfere in the government of the country. TRAVELERS AND TRADE.--The _East_, especially _India_, was conceived of as a region of boundless riches; but commerce with the East was hindered by a thousand difficulties and dangers. Curiosity led travelers to penetrate into the countries of Asia. Among them the _Polo_ family of Venice, of whom _Marco_ was the most famous, were specially distinguished. Marco Polo lived in _China_, with his father and his uncle, twenty-six years. After his return, and during his captivity at _Genoa_, he wrote the celebrated accounts of his travels. He died about 1324. _Sir John Mandeville_ also wrote of his travels, but most of his descriptions were taken from the work of _Friar Odoric_, of Pordenone, who had visited the Far East. Merchants did not venture so far as did bold explorers of a scientific turn. Commerce in the Middle Ages was mainly in two districts,--the borders of the North Sea and of the Baltic, and the countries upon the Mediterranean. Trade in the cities on the African coast, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, was flourishing; and the Arabs of Spain were industrious and rich. _Arles, Marseilles, Nice, Genoa, Florence, Amalfi, Venice_, vied with one another in traffic with the East. Intermediate between Venice and Genoa, and the north of Europe, were flourishing marts, among which _Strasburg_ and other cities on the Rhine--_Augsburg, Ulm, Ratisbon, Vienna_, and _Nuremberg_--were among the most prominent. Through these cities flowed the currents of trade from the North to the South, and from the South to the North. THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE.--To protect themselves against the feudal lords and against pirates, the cities of Northern Germany formed (about 1241) the _Hanseatic League_, which, at the height of its power, included eighty-five cities, besides many other cities more or less closely affiliated with it. This league was dominant, as regards trade and commerce, in the north of Europe, and united under it the cities on the Baltic and the Rhine, as well as the large cities of Flanders. Its merchants had control of the fisheries, the mines, the agriculture, and manufactures of Germany. _Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick_, and _Dantzic_ were its principal places. _Lübeck_ was its chief center. In all the principal towns on the highways of commerce, the flag of the _Hansa_ floated over its counting-houses. Wherever the influence of the league reached, its regulations were in force. It almost succeeded in monopolizing the trade of Europe north of Italy. FLANDERS: ENGLAND: FRANCE.--The numerous cities of Flanders--of which _Ghent, Ypres_, and _Bruges_ were best known--became hives of industry and of thrift. _Ghent_, at the end of the thirteenth century, surpassed _Paris_ in riches and power. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, the number of its fighting men was estimated at eighty thousand. The development of _Holland_ was more slow. _Amsterdam_ was constituted a town in the middle of the thirteenth century. _England_ began to exchange products with _Spain_. It sent its sheep, and brought back the horses of the Arabians. The cities of France--_Rouen, Orleans, Rheims, Lyons, Marseilles_, etc.--were alive with manufactures and trade. In the twelfth century the yearly fairs at _Troyes, St. Denis_, and _Beaucaire_ were famous all over Europe. NEW INDUSTRIES.--It has been already stated that the crusaders brought back to Europe the knowledge as well as the products of various branches of industry. Such were the cloths of Damascus, the glass of Tyre, the use of windmills, of linen, and of silk, the plum-trees of Damascus, the sugar-cane, the mulberry-tree. Cotton stuffs came into use at this time. Paper made from cotton was used by the Saracens in Spain in the eighth century. Paper was made from linen at a somewhat later date. In France and Germany it was first manufactured early in the fourteenth century. THE JEWS.--The Jews in the Middle Ages were often treated with extreme harshness. An outburst of the crusading spirit was frequently attended with cruel assaults upon them. As Christians would not take interest, money-lending was a business mainly left to the Hebrews. By them, bills of exchange were first employed. OBSTACLES TO TRADE.--The great obstacle to commerce was the insecurity of travel. Whenever a shipwreck took place, whatever was cast upon the shore was seized by the neighboring lord. A noble at _Leon_, in Brittany, pointing out a rock on which many vessels had been wrecked, said, "I have a rock there more precious than the diamonds on the crown of a king." It was long before property on the sea was respected, even in the same degree as property on the land. Not even at the present day has this point been reached. The infinite diversity of coins was another embarrassment to trade. In every fief, one had to exchange his money, always at a loss. _Louis IX._ ordained that the money of eighty lords, who had the right to coin, should be current only in their own territories, while the coinage of the king should be received everywhere. GUILDS.--A very important feature of mediæval society was the _guilds_. Societies more or less resembling these existed among the _Romans_, and were called _collegia_,--some being for good fellowship or for religious rites, and others being trade-corporations. There were, also, similar fraternities among the _Greeks_ in the second and third centuries B.C. In the Middle Ages, there were two general classes of guilds: _First_, there were the _peace-guilds_, for mutual protection against thieves, etc., and for mutual aid in sickness, old age, or impoverishment from other causes. They were numerous in England, and spread over the Continent. _Secondly_, there were the _trade-guilds_, which embraced the _guilds-merchant_, and the _craft-guilds_. The latter were associations of workmen, for maintaining the customs of their craft, each with a _master_, or _alderman_, and other officers. They had their provisions for mutual help for themselves and for their widows and orphans, and they had their religious observances. Each had its patron saint, its festivals, its treasury. They kept in their hands the monopoly of the branch of industry which belonged to them. They had their rules in respect to apprenticeship, etc. Almost all professions and occupations were fenced in by guilds. MONASTICISM.--Society in the Middle Ages presented striking and picturesque contrasts. This was nowhere more apparent than in the sphere of religion. Along with the passion for war and the consequent reign of violence, there was a parallel self-consecration to a life of peace and devotion. With the strongest relish for pageantry and for a brilliant ceremonial in social life and in worship, there was associated a yearning for an ascetic course under the monastic vows. As existing orders grew rich, and gave up the rigid discipline of earlier days, new orders were formed by men of deeper religious earnestness. In the eleventh century, there arose, among other orders, the _Carthusian_ and _Cistercian;_ in the twelfth century, the _Premonstrants_ and the _Carmelites_, and the order of _Trinitarians_ for the liberation of Christian captives taken by the Moslems. The older orders, especially that of the _Benedictines_ in its different branches, became very wealthy and powerful. The _Cistercian_ Order, under its second founder, _St. Bernard_ (who died in 1153), spread with wonderful rapidity. THE MENDICANT ORDERS.--In the thirteenth century, when the papal authority was at its height, the mendicant orders arose. The order of _St. Francis_ was fully established in 1223, and the order of _St. Dominic_ in 1216. They combined with monastic vows the utmost activity in preaching and in other clerical work. These orders attracted young men of talents and of a devout spirit in large numbers. The mendicant friars were frequently in conflict with the secular clergy,--the ordinary priesthood,--and with the other orders. But they gained a vast influence, and were devotedly loyal to the popes. It must not be supposed that the monastic orders generally were made up of the weak or the disappointed who sought in cloisters a quiet asylum. Disgust with the world, from whatever cause, led many to become members of them; but they were largely composed of vigorous minds, which, of their own free choice, took on them the monastic vows. THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.--The Crusades were accompanied by a signal revival of intellectual activity. One of the most important events of the thirteenth century was the rise of the universities. The schools connected with the abbeys and the cathedrals in France began to improve in the eleventh century, partly from an impulse caught by individuals from the Arabic schools in Spain. After the scholastic theology was introduced, teachers in this branch began to give instruction near those schools in Paris. Numerous pupils gathered around noted lecturers. An organization followed which was called a _university_,--a sort of _guild_,--made up of four faculties,--theology, canon law, medicine, and the arts. The arts included the three studies (_trivium_) of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, with four additional branches (the _quadrivium_),--arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy. _Paris_ became the mother of many other universities. Next to Paris, _Oxford_ was famous as a seat of education. Of all the universities, _Bologna_ in Italy was most renowned as a school for the study of the civil law. SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY.--The scholastic theology dates from the middle of the eleventh century. It was the work of numerous teachers, many of them of unsurpassed acuteness, who, at a time when learning and scholarship were at a low ebb, made it their aim to systemize, elucidate, and prove on philosophical grounds, the doctrines of the Church. _Aristotle_ was the author whose philosophical writings were most authoritative with the schoolmen. In theology, _Augustine_ was the most revered master. The main question in philosophy which the schoolmen debated was that of _Nominalism_ and _Realism_. The question was, whether a general term, as _man_, stands for a real being designated by it (as _man_, in the example given, for _humanity_), or is simply the _name_ of divers distinct individuals. THE LEADING SCHOOLMEN.--In the eleventh century _Anselm_ of Canterbury was a noble example of the scholastic spirit. In the thirteenth century _Abelard_ was a bold and brilliant teacher, but with less depth and discretion. He, like other eminent schoolmen, attracted multitudes of pupils. The thirteenth century was the golden age of scholasticism. Then flourished _Albert_ the Great, _Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventura_, and others very influential in their day. There were two schools of opinion,--that of the _Thomists_, the adherents of _Aquinas_, the great theologian of the _Dominican_ order; and that of the _Scotists_, the adherents of _Duns Scotus_, a great light of the _Franciscans_. They differed on various theological points not involved in the common faith. The discussions of the schoolmen were often carried into distinctions bewildering from their subtlety. There were individuals who were more disposed to the _inductive_ method of investigation, and who gave attention to _natural_ as well as metaphysical science. Perhaps the most eminent of these is _Roger Bacon_. He was an Englishman, was born in 1219, and died about 1294. He was imprisoned for a time on account of the jealousy with which studies in natural science and new discoveries in that branch were regarded by reason of their imagined conflict with religion. _Astrology_ was cultivated by the Moors in Spain in connection with astronomy. It spread among the Christian nations. _Alchemy_, the search for the transmutation of metals, had its curious votaries. But such pursuits were popularly identified with diabolic agency. THE VERNACULAR LITERATURES: THE TROUBADOURS.--Intellectual activity was for a long time exclusively confined to theology. The earliest literature of a secular cast in France belongs to the tenth and eleventh centuries, and to the dialect of _Provence_. The study of this language, and the poetry composed in it, became the recreation of knights and noble ladies. Thousands of poets, who were called _Troubadours_ (from _trobar_, to find or invent), appeared almost simultaneously, and became well known in _Spain_ and in _Italy_ as well as in _France_. At the same time the period of chivalry began. The theme of their tender and passionate poems was love. They indulged in a license which was not offensive, owing to the laxity of manners and morals in Southern France at that day, but would be intolerable in a different state of society. Kings, as well as barons and knights, adopted the Provençal language, and figured as troubadours. In connection with jousts and tournaments, there would be a contest for poetical honors. The "Court of Love," made up of gentle ladies, with the lady of the castle at their head, gave the verdict. Besides the songs of love, another class of Provençal poems treated of war or politics, or were of a satirical cast. From the _Moors_ of Spain, _rhyme_, which belonged to Arabian poetry, was introduced, and spread thence over Europe. After the thirteenth century the troubadours were heard of no more, and the Provençal tongue became a mere dialect. THE NORMAN WRITERS.--The first writers and poets in the French language proper appeared in Normandy. They called themselves _Trouvères_. They were the troubadours of the North. They composed romances of chivalry, and _Fabliaux_, or amusing tales. They sang in a more warlike and virile strain than the poets of the South. Their first romances were written late in the twelfth century. About that time _Villehardouin_ wrote in French a history of the conquest of Constantinople. From the poem entitled "Alexander," the name of Alexandrine verse came to be applied to the measure in which it was written. A favorite theme of the romances of chivalry was the mythical exploits of _Arthur_, the last Celtic king of Britain, and of the knights of the _Round Table_. Another class of romances of chivalry related to the court of _Charlemagne_. The _Fabliaux_ in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were largely composed of tales of ludicrous adventures. GERMAN, ENGLISH, AND SPANISH WRITERS.--In _Germany_, in the age of the Hohenstaufens, the poets called _Minnesingers_ abounded. They were conspicuous at the splendid tournaments and festivals. In the thirteenth century numerous lays of love, satirical fables, and metrical romances were composed or translated. Of the _Round Table_ legends, that of the _San Graal_ (the holy vessel) was the most popular. It treated of the search for the precious blood of Christ, which was said to have been brought in a cup or charger into Northern Europe by _Joseph of Arimathea_. During this period the old ballads were thrown into an epic form; among them, the _Nibelungenlied_, the Iliad of Germany. The religious faith and loyalty of the _Spanish_ character, the fruit of their long contest with the Moors, are reflected in _the poem of the Cid_, which was composed about the year 1200. It is one of the oldest epics in the Romance languages. In _England_ during this period, we have the chronicles kept in the monasteries. Among their authors are _William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth_, and _Matthew Paris_, a Benedictine monk of St. Albans. DANTE.--Dante, the chief poet of Italy, and the father of its vernacular literature, was born in _Florence_ in 1265. _The Divine Comedy_ is universally regarded as one of the greatest products of poetical genius. The family of _Alighieri_, to which _Dante_ belonged, was noble, but not of the highest rank. He was placed under the best masters, and became not only an accomplished student of Virgil and other Latin poets, but also an adept in theology and in various other branches of knowledge. His training was the best that the time afforded. His family belonged to the anti-imperial party of _Guelfs_. The spirit of faction raged at _Florence_. _Dante_ was attached to the party of "Whites" (_Bianchi_), and, having held the high office of _prior_ in Florence, was banished, with many others, when the "Blacks" (_Neri_) got the upper hand (1302). Until his death, nineteen years later, he wandered from place to place in Italy as an exile. Circumstances, especially the distracted condition of the country, led him to ally himself with the _Ghibellines_, and to favor the imperial cause. All that he saw and suffered until he breathed his last, away from his native city, at _Ravenna_, combined to stir within him the thoughts and passions which find expression in his verse. No poet before _Dante_ ever equaled him in depth of thought and feeling. His principal work is divided into _three_ parts. It is an allegorical vision of hell, purgatory, and heaven. Through the first two of these regions, the poet is conducted by _Virgil_. In the third, _Beatrice_ is his guide. When he was a boy of nine years of age, he had met, at a May-day festival, _Beatrice_, who was of the same age; and thenceforward he cherished towards her a pure and romantic affection. Before his twenty-fifth year she died; but, after her death, his thoughts dwelt upon her with a refined but not less passionate regard. She is his imaginary guide through the abodes of the blest. His _Young Life_ (_Vita Nuova_) gives the history of his love. The "_Divine Comedy_"--so called because the author would modestly place it below the rank of tragedy,--besides the lofty genius which it exhibits, besides the matchless force and beauty of its diction, sums up, so to speak, what is best and most characteristic in the whole intellectual and religious life of the Middle Ages. _Thomas Aquinas_ was _Dante's_ authority in theology· The scholastic system taught by the Church is brought to view in his pictures of the supernatural world, and in the comments connected with them. PAINTING.--After the Lombard conquest of Italy, art branched off into two schools. The one was the Byzantine, and the other the Late Roman. In the Byzantine paintings, the human figures are stiff, and conventional forms prevail. The Byzantine school conceived of _Jesus_ as without beauty of person,--literally "without form or comeliness." The Romans had a directly opposite conception. Byzantine taste had a strong influence in Italy, especially at _Venice_. This is seen in the mosaics of St. Mark's Cathedral. The first painter to break loose from Byzantine influence, and to introduce a more free style which flourished under the patronage of the Church, was _Cimabue_ (1240-1302), who is generally considered the founder of modern Italian painting. The first steps were now taken towards a direct observation and imitation of nature. The artist is no longer a slavish copyist of others. "_Cimabue_" says _M. Taine_, "already belongs to the new order of things; for he invents and expresses." But _Cimabue_ was far outdone by _Giotto_ (1276-1337), who cast off wholly the Byzantine fetters, studied nature earnestly, and abjured that which is false and artificial. Notwithstanding his technical defects, his force, and "his feeling for grace of action and harmony of color," were such as to make him, even more than _Cimabue_, "the founder of the true ideal style of Christian art, and the restorer of portraiture." "His, above all, was a varied, fertile, facile, and richly creative nature." The contemporary of _Dante_, his portrait of the poet has been discovered in recent times on a wall in the Podesta at Florence. "He stands at the head of the school of allegorical painting, as the latter of that of poetry." The most famous pupil of _Giotto_ was _Taddeo Gaddi_ (about 1300-1367). SCULPTURE.--In the thirteenth century, the era of the revival of art in Italy, a new school of sculpture arose under the auspices especially of two artists, _Niccolo of Pisa_ and his son _Giovanni_. They brought to their art the same spirit which belonged to _Giotto_ in painting and to _Dante_ in poetry. The same courage that moved the great poet to write in his own vernacular tongue, instead of in Latin, emboldened the artists to look away from the received standards, and to follow nature. In the same period a new and improved style of sculpture appears in other countries, especially in the Gothic cathedrals of Germany and France. ARCHITECTURE.--The earliest Christian churches were copies of the Roman basilica,--a civil building oblong in shape, sometimes with and sometimes without rows of columns dividing the nave from the aisles: at one end, there was usually a semicircular _apse_. Most of the churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were built after this style. Then changes were introduced, which in some measure paved the way for the _Gothic_, the peculiar type of mediæval architecture. The essential characteristic of this style is the pointed arch. This may have been introduced by the returning crusaders from buildings which they had observed in the East. Its use and development in the churches and other edifices of Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were without previous example. The Gothic style was carried to its perfection in France, and spread over England and Germany. The cathedrals erected in this form are still the noblest and most attractive buildings to be seen in the old European towns. The cathedral in _Rheimes_ was commenced in 1211: the choir was dedicated in 1241, and the edifice was completed in 1430. The cathedral of _Amiens_ was begun in 1220; that of _Chartres_ was begun about 1020, and was dedicated in 1260; that of _Salisbury_ was begun in 1220; that of _Cologne_, in 1248; the cathedral of _Strasburg_ was only half finished in 1318, when the architect, _Erwin of Steinbach_, died; that of Notre Dame in _Paris_ was begun in 1163; that of _Toledo_, in 1258. These noble buildings were built gradually: centuries passed before the completion of them. Several of them to this day remain unfinished. FRANCE.--THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. PHILIP VI, 1328-1350, _m_. Jeanne, daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy. | +--JOHN, 1350-1364, _m_. Bona, daughter of John, King of Bohemia. | +--CHARLES V, 1364-1380, _m_. Jeanne, daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon. | +--CHARLES VI, 1380-1422, _m_. | Isabella, daughter of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria. | | | +--CHARLES VII, 1422-1461, | _m_. Mary, daughter | of Louis II of Anjou. | | | +--LOUIS XI, 1461-1483, | _m_. (2), Charlotte, | daughter of Louis, | Duke of Savoy. | | | +--3, CHARLES VIII, 1483-1498, | _m_. Anne of Bretagne. | +--Louis, Duke of Orleans (_d_. 1407) _m_. Valentina, daughter of Gian Galeazzi, Duke of Milan. | +--Charles, Duke of Orleans (_d_. 1467), | _m_. Mary of Cleves. | | | +--2, Anne of Bretagne, | _m_. LOUIS XII, 1498-1515. | | | +--Claude, _m_. FRANCIS I, 1515-1547. | +--John, Count of Angoulême (_d_. 1467). | +--Charles, count (_d_. 1496), _m_. Louisa, daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy. | +--FRANCIS I, 1515-1547. | | | +--HENRY II. 1547-1559, _m._. | Catherine de' Medici, _d._. 1589. | | | +--FRANCIS II, 1559-1560, _m_. | | Mary, Queen of Scots. | | | +--CHARLES IX, 1560-1574, | | _m_. Elizabeth, daughter of | | Emperor Maximilian II. | | | +--HENRY III. 1574-1589, _m_. | | Louis, daughter of Nicholas, | | Duke of Mercoeur. | | | +--Margaret, | _m_. | +--HENRY IV, succeeded 1589. | | | +--Jeanne, _m_. Anthony of Bourbon. | | +--MARGARET, _m._ (2), HENRY II OF NAVARRE. ENGLAND.--DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD I EDWARD I, 1272-1307, _m._. 1, Eleanor, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile; | | +--4, EDWARD II, 1307-1327, _m._. Isabel, daughter of Philip IV of France. | +--EDWARD III, 1327-1377, _m._ Philippa, daughter of William III of Hainault. | +--Edward, the Black Prince, | _m._ Joan of Kent. | | | +--RICHARD II, 1377-1399, _m._ | Anne, daughter of Emperor Charles IV. | +--Lionel, Duke of Clarence. | | | +--Philippa, _m._ Edmund Mortimer. | | | +--Roger Mortimer. | | | +--Edmund Mortimer. | | | +--Anne Mortimer, _m._ | Richard, Earl of Cambridge. | | | +--Richard, Duke of York. | | | +--EDWARD IV, 1461-1483. | | | | | +--EDWARD V (_d._ 1483). | | | +--RICHARD III, 1483-1485. | +--John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. | | | +--HENRY IV, 1399-1413. | | | +--HENRY V, 1413-1422. | | | +--HENRY VI, 1422-1461. | +--Edmund, Duke of York. | +--Richard, Earl of Cambridge _m._ Anne Mortimer (wh. see). 2, Margaret, daughter of Philip III of France. PERIOD IV. FROM THE END OF THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. (_A.D. 1270-1453_.) THE DECLINE OP ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY: THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT AND OF MONARCHY. CHARACTER OF THE NEW ERA.--The Church was supreme in the era of the Crusades. These had been great movements of a society of which the Pope was the head,--movements in which the pontiffs were the natural leaders. We come now to an era when the predominance of the Church declines, and the Papacy loses ground. Mingled with religion, there is diffused a more secular spirit. The nations grow to be more distinct from one another. Political relations come to be paramount. The national spirit grows strong,--too strong for outside ecclesiastical control. Within each nation the laity is inclined to put limits to the power and privileges of the clergy. In several of the countries, monarchy in the modern European form gets a firm foothold. The enfranchisement of the towns, the rise of commerce, the influence gained by the legists and by the Roman law, of which they were the expounders, had betokened the dawn of a new era. The development of the national languages and literatures signified its coming. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire no longer absorb attention. What is taking place in France and England is, to say the least, of equal moment. CHAPTER I. ENGLAND AND FRANCE: SECOND PERIOD OP RIVALSHIP: THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1339-1453). PHILIP III. OF FRANCE (1270-1285).--In France royalty made a steady progress down to the long War of a Hundred Years. _Philip III_. (1270-1285) married his son to the heiress of _Navarre_. His sway extended to the Pyrenees. He failed in an expedition against _Peter_, king of _Aragon_, who had supported the Sicilians against _Charles of Anjou_; but the time for foreign conquests had not come. PHILIP IV. OF FRANCE (1285-1314): WAR WITH EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND.-- _Philip IV._ (the Fair) has been styled the "King of the Legists." He surrounded himself with lawyers, who furnished him, from their storehouse of Roman legislation, weapons with which to face baron and pope. In 1292 conflicts broke out between English and French sailors. _Philip_, in his character as suzerain, undertook to take peaceful possession of _Guienne_, but was prevented by the English garrisons. Thereupon he summoned _Edward I._ of England, as the holder of the fiefs, before his court. _Edward_ sent his brother as a deputy, but the French king declared that the fiefs were forfeited in consequence of his not appearing in person. In the war that resulted (1294-1297), each party had his natural allies. _Philip_ had for his allies the Welsh and the Scots, while _Edward_ was supported by the Count of Flanders and by _Adolphus_ of Nassau, king of the Romans. In Scotland, _William Wallace_ withstood Edward. _Philip_ was successful in _Flanders_ and in _Guienne_. _Edward_, who was kept in England by his war with the Scots, secured a truce through the mediation of Pope _Boniface VIII_. Philip then took possession of Flanders, with the exception of _Ghent_. Flanders was at that time the richest country in Europe. Its cities were numerous, and the whole land was populous and industrious. From England it received the wool used in its thriving manufactures. To England its people were attached. Philip loaded the Flemish people with imposts. They rose in revolt, and _Robert d'Artois_, Philip's brother, met with a disastrous defeat in a battle with the Flemish troops at _Courtrai_, in 1302. The Flemish burghers proved themselves too strong for the royal troops. Flanders was restored to its count, four towns being retained by France. CONFLICT OF PHILIP IV. AND BONIFACE VIII.--The expenses of _Philip_, in the support of his army and for other purposes, were enormous. The old feudal revenues were wholly insufficient for the new methods of government. To supply himself with money, he not only levied onerous taxes on his subjects, and practiced ingenious extortion upon the Jews, but he resorted again and again to the device of debasing the coin. His resolution to tax the property of the Church brought him into a controversy, momentous in its results, with Pope _Boniface VIII_. _Boniface's_ idea of papal prerogative was fully as exalted as that formerly held by _Hildebrand_ and _Innocent III_. But he had less prudence and self-restraint, and the temper of the times was now altered. If Philip was sustained by the Roman law and its interpreters, whose counsels he gladly followed, _Boniface_, on the other hand, could lean upon the system of ecclesiastical or canon law, which had long been growing up in Europe, and of which the _Canonists_ were the professional expounders. The vast wealth of the clergy had led to enactments for keeping it within bounds, like the statute of _mortmain_ in England (1279) forbidding the giving of land to religious bodies without license from the king. The word _mortmain_ meant _dead hand_, and was applied to possessors of land, especially ecclesiastical corporations, that could not alienate it. The jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts, which kings, because they happened to have a less liking for feudal law, had often favored, had now come to be another great matter of contention. In 1296 _Boniface VIII_., in the bull _clericis laicos_,--so named, like other papal edicts, from the opening words,--forbade the imposition of extraordinary taxes upon the clergy without the consent of the Holy See. _Philip_ responded by forbidding foreigners to sojourn in France, which was equivalent to driving out of the country the Roman priests and those who brought in the obnoxious bull. At the same time he forbade money to be carried out of France. This last prohibition cut off contributions to Rome. The king asserted the importance of the laity in the Church, as well as of the clergy, and the right of the king of France to take charge of his own realm. There was a seeming reconciliation for a time, through concessions on the side of the Pope; but the strife broke out afresh in 1301. _Philip_ arrested _Bernard Saisset_, a bold legate of the Pope. _Boniface_ poured forth a stream of complaints against _Philip_ (1301), and went so far as to summon the French clergy to a council at _Rome_ for the settlement of all disorders in France. The king then appealed to the French nation. On the 10th of April, 1302, he assembled in the Church of _Notre Dame_, at Paris, a body which, for the first time, contained the deputies of the universities and of the towns, and for this reason is considered to have been the first meeting of the _States General_, The clergy, the barons, the burghers, sided cordially with the king. The Pope then published the famous bull, _Unam Sanctam_, in which the subjection of the temporal power to the spiritual is proclaimed with the strongest emphasis. Boniface then excommunicated Philip, and was preparing to depose him, and to hand over his kingdom to the emperor, _Albert I_. DEATH OF BONIFACE VIII.--Meantime _Philip_ had assembled anew the States General (1303). The legists lent their counsel and active support. It was proposed to the king to convoke a general council of the Church, and to summon the Pope before it. _William of Nogaret_, a great lawyer in the service of Philip, was directed to lodge with Boniface this appeal to a council, and to publish it at _Rome_. With _Sciarra Colonna_, between whose family and the Pope there was a mortal feud, _Nogaret_, attended also by several hundred hired soldiers, entered _Anagni_, where _Boniface_ was then staying. The two messengers heaped upon him the severest reproaches, and _Colonna_ is said to have struck the old pontiff in the face with his mailed hand. The French were driven out of the town by the people; but from the indignities which he had suffered, and the anger and shame consequent upon them, _Boniface_ shortly afterwards died. THE "BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY" (1309-1379).--From the date of the events just narrated, the pontifical authority sank, and the secular authority of sovereigns and nations was in the ascendant. After the short pontificate of _Benedict XL_, who did what he could to reconcile the ancient but estranged allies, France and the Papacy, a French prelate, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, was made pope under the name of _Clement V_., he having previously engaged to comply with the wishes of Philip. While the Papacy continued subordinate to the French king, its moral influence in other parts of Christendom was of necessity reduced. _Clement V_, was crowned at _Lyons_ in 1305, and in 1309 established himself at _Avignon_, a possession of the Holy See on the borders of France. After him there followed at _Avignon_ seven popes who were subject to French influence (1309-1376). It is the period in the annals of the Papacy which is called the "Babylonian captivity." _Philip_ remained implacable. He was determined to secure the condemnation of _Boniface VIII_., even after his death. _Clement V_. had no alternative but to summon a council, which was held at _Vienne_ in 1311, when Boniface was declared to have been orthodox, at the same time that Philip was shielded from ecclesiastical censure or reproach. SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.--One of the demands which _Philip_ had made of _Clement V_., and a demand which the council had to grant, was the condemnation of the order of Knights Templars, whose vast wealth Philip coveted. On the 13th of October, 1307, the Templars were arrested overall France,--an act which evinces both the power of Philip, and his injustice. They were charged with secret immoralities, and with practices involving impiety. Provincial councils were called together to decree the judgment preordained by the king. The Templars were examined under torture, and many of them were burned at the stake. A large number of those who were put to death revoked the confessions which had been extorted from them by bodily suffering. Individuals may have been guilty of some of the charges, but there is no warrant for such a verdict against the entire order. The order was abolished by _Clement V_. LAW STUDIES: MERCENARY TROOPS.--During the reign of Philip the Fair, it was ordained that Parliament should sit twice every year at Paris (1303). A university for the study of law was founded at _Orleans_. The king needed soldiers as well as lawyers. Mercenary troops were beginning to take the place of feudal bands. Philip brought the Genoese galleys against the ships of Flanders. THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP: THE "SALIC LAW."--Three sons of Philip reigned after him. _Louis X._ (1314-1316) was induced to take part in an aristocratic reaction, in behalf of "the good old customs," against the legists; but he continued to emancipate the serfs. He was not succeeded by his daughter, but by his brother. This precedent was soon transformed into the "Salic law" that only heirs in the male line could succeed to the throne. The rule was really the result of the "genealogical accident" that for three hundred and forty-one years, or since the election of Hugh Capet, every French king had been succeeded by his son. In several cases the son had been crowned in the lifetime of the father. Thus the principle of heredity, and of heredity in the male line, had taken root. Under _Philip V._ and his successor, _Charles IV._ (1322-1328), there was cruel persecution of the Jews, and many people suffered death on the charge of sorcery. EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND (1272-1307): CONQUEST OF WALES: WILLIAM WALLACE.--_Edward_, who was in the Holy Land when his father died, was a gallant knight and an able ruler,--"the most brilliant monarch of the fourteenth century." _Llywelyn_, prince of Wales, having refused to render the oath due from a vassal, was forced to yield. When a rebellion broke out several years later, Wales was conquered, and the leader of the rebellion was executed (1283). Thus Wales was joined to England; and the king gave to his son the title of "Prince of Wales," which the eldest son of the sovereign of England has since worn. _Edward_ was for many years at war with Scotland, which now included the Gaelic-speaking people of the Highlands, and the English-speaking people of the Lowlands. The king of England had some claim to be their suzerain, a claim which the Scots were slow to acknowledge. The old line of Scottish princes of the Celtic race died out. Alexander III. fell with his horse over a cliff on the coast of Fife. Two competitors for the throne arose, both of them of Norman descent,--_John Baliol_ and _Robert Bruce_. The Scots made _Edward_ an umpire, to decide which of them should reign. He decided for _Baliol_ (1292), stipulating that the suzerainty should rest with himself. When he called upon _Baliol_ to aid him against France, the latter renounced his allegiance, and declared war. He was conquered at _Dunbar_ (1296), and made prisoner. The strongholds in Scotland fell into the hands of the English. The country appeared to be subjugated, but the Scots were ill-treated by the English. _William Wallace_ put himself at the head of a band of followers, defeated them near _Stirling_ in 1292, and kept up the contest for several years with heroic energy. At length _Edward_, through the skill acquired by the English in the use of the bow, was the victor at _Falkirk_ in 1298. _Wallace_, having been betrayed into his hands, was brutally executed in London (1305). Edward carried off from Scone the stone on which the Scottish kings had always been crowned. It is now in Westminster Abbey, under the coronation chair of the sovereign of Great Britain. There was a legend, that on this same stone the patriarch Jacob laid his head when he beheld angels ascending and descending at Bethel. Where that stone was, it was believed that Scottish kings would reign. This was held to be verified when English kings of Scottish descent inherited the crown. ROBERT BRUCE.--The struggle for Scottish independence was taken up by _Robert Bruce_, grandson of the Bruce who had claimed the crown. His plan to gain the throne was disclosed by _John Comyn_, nephew of _Baliol_: this _Comyn_ young Bruce stabbed in a church at Dumfries. He was then crowned king at Scone, and summoned the Scots to his standard. The English king sent his son _Edward_ to conquer him; but the king himself, before he could reach Scotland, died. PARLIAMENT: THE JEWS.--Under Edward, the form of government by king, lords, and commons was firmly established. Parliament met in two distinct houses. Against his inclination he swore to the "Confirmation of the Charters," by which he engaged not to impose taxes without the consent of Parliament. The statute of _mortmain_ has been referred to already. The clergy paid their taxes to the king when they found, that, unless they did so, the judges would not protect them. _Edward_ had protected the _Jews_, who, in England as elsewhere, were often falsely accused of horrible crimes, and against whom there existed, on account of their religion, a violent prejudice. At length he yielded to the popular hatred, and banished them from the kingdom, permitting them, however, to take with them their property. Edward II. (1307-1327).--_Edward II_., a weak and despicable sovereign, cared for nothing but pleasure. He was under the influence of the son of a Gascon gentleman, _Peter of Gaveston_, whom, contrary to the injunction of his father, he recalled from banishment. _Gaveston_ was made regent while the king was in France, whither he went, in 1308, to marry _Isabel_, daughter of _Philip the Fair_. After his return, the disgust of the barons at the conduct of _Gaveston_, and at the courses into which _Edward_ was led by him, was such, that in 1310 they forced the king to give the government for a year to a committee of peers, by whom Gaveston was once more banished. When he came back, he was captured by the barons, and beheaded in 1312. BRUCE: BANNOCKBURN: DEPOSITION OF EDWARD II.--After various successes, _Robert Bruce_ laid siege to _Stirling_ in 1314. This led to a temporary reconciliation between the king and the barons. _Edward_ set out for Scotland with an army of a hundred thousand men. A great battle took place at _Bannockburn_, where _Bruce_, with a greatly inferior force of foot-soldiers, totally defeated the English. He had dug pits in front of his army, which he had covered with turf resting on sticks. The effect was to throw the English cavalry into confusion. Against the _Despencers_, father and son, the next favorites of Edward, the barons were not at first successful; but in 1326 Edward's queen, _Isabel_, who had joined his enemies, returned from France with young _Edward_, Prince of Wales, and at the head of foreign soldiers and exiles. The barons joined her: the _Despencers_ were taken and executed. The king was driven to resign the crown. He was carried from one castle to another, and finally was secretly murdered at Berkeley Castle, by _Roger Mortimer_, in whose custody he had been placed. On the suppression of the _Knights Templars_ by _Pope Clement V._, their property in England was confiscated. The _Temple_, which was their abode in London, became afterwards the possession of two societies of lawyers, the _Inner_ and _Middle Temple_. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD I. (TO THE PEACE OF BRÉTIGNY. 1360). ORIGIN OF THE WAR: EDWARD III. OF ENGLAND (1327-1377).--England and France entered on one of the longest wars of which there is any record in history. It lasted, with only a few short periods of intermission, for a hundred years. At the outset, there were two main causes of strife. _First_, the king of France naturally coveted the English territory around Bordeaux,--_Guienne_, whose people were French. _Secondly_, the English would not allow _Flanders_ --whose manufacturing towns, as Ghent and Bruges, were the best customers for their wool--to pass under French control. Independently of these grounds of dispute, _Edward III_. laid claim to the French crown, for the reason that his mother was the sister of the last king, while _Philip VI_. (1328-1350), then reigning, was only his cousin. The French stood by the "Salic law," but a much stronger feeling was their determination not to be ruled by an Englishman. _Edward III._ claimed the throne of France in right of his mother, _Isabel_, the daughter of _Philip IV_. The peers and barons of France, on the whole, for political reasons, decided that the crown should be given to _Philip (VI.)_. his nephew, of the house of _Valois_, a younger line of the _Capets_. Edward rendered to him, in 1328, feudal homage for the duchy of _Guienne_, but took the first favorable occasion to re-assert his claim to the throne. _Robert II._, Count of Artois, was obliged to fly from France on a charge of having poisoned his aunt and her daughters, as a part of his unsuccessful attempt to get possession of the fiefs left to them by his grandsire. He went over to England from _Brussels_, and stirred up the young English king to attack _Philip_ (1334). _David Bruce_, whom _Edward_ sought to drive out of Scotland, received aid from France. Philip ordered _Louis_, Count of Flanders, between whom and the burghers there was no affection, to expel the English from his states. _James Van Arteveld_, a brewer of _Ghent_, convinced the people that it was better to get rid of the count, and ally themselves with the English. _Edward_ even then hesitated about entering into the conflict, but the demands and measures of _Philip_ showed that he was bent on war. The princes in the neighborhood of Flanders, and the emperor _Louis V_., to whom the Pope at _Avignon_ was hostile, declared on the side of _Edward_. The following tables (in part repeated, in a modified form, from previous tables, and here connected) will illustrate the narrative:-- THE HOUSE OF VALOIS. CHARLES, Count of Valois (_d_. 1325), younger son of PHILIP III, KING OF FRANCE. (See below.) | +--PHILIP VI, 1328-1350. | +--JOHN the Good, 1350-1364. | +--CHARLES V the Wise, 1364-1380. | | | +--CHARLES VI, 1380-1422. | | | | | +--CHARLES VII, 1422-1461. | | | | | +--LOUIS XI, 1461-1483. | | | | | +--CHARLES VIII, 1483-1498. | | | | | +--Jeanne, | | _m_ | | +--Duke of Orleans, afterwards LOUIS XII, 1498-1515. | | | | | +--Charles, Duke of Orleans, (d. 1467) | | | | +--Louis, Duke of Orleans (assassinated 1407), | founder of the House of _Valois-Orleans_. | +--Louis, Duke of Anjou, founder | of the second Royal House of Naples. | +--John, Duke of Berry. | +--Philip, Duke of Burgundy (_d_. 1404). * * * * * PHILIP III, 1270-1285. | +--PHILIP IV, 1285-1314. | | | +--Isabel, _m_. Edward II of England | | | | | +--Edward II of England. | | | | | +--Edward III of England. | | | +--PHILIP V, 1316-1322. | | | +--CHARLES IV, 1322-1328. | +--Charles, Count of Valois (_d_. 1325), _m_. (1), Margaret of Naples. | +--PHILIP VI, 1328-1350. EARLY EVENTS OF THE WAR.--Hostilities began in 1337. _Edward_ entered France, and then for the first time publicly set up his claim to be king of France, quartering the lilies on his shield; and he was accepted by the Flemish as their suzerain. The first battle was on the sea near Fort _Sluys_ (1340), where _Edward_ won a victory, and thirty thousand Frenchmen were slain or drowned. This established the supremacy of the English on the water. The fleet of the French was made up of hired Castilian and Genoese vessels. In 1341 the conflict was renewed on account of a disputed succession in Brittany, in which the "Salic law" was this time on the English side. _Jane of Penthievre_ was supported by _Philip_; while _Jane of Montfort_, an intrepid woman who was protected by _Edward_, contended for the rights of her husband. This war, consisting of the sieges of fortresses and towns, was kept up for twenty-four years. BATTLE OF CRÉCY: CALAIS: BRITTANY.--In 1346 the _Earl of Derby_ made an attack in the south of France, while _Edward_, with his young son _Edward_, the Prince of Wales, landed in Normandy, which he devastated. _King Edward_ advanced to the neighborhood of Paris; but the want of provisions caused him to change his course, and to march in the direction of Flanders. His situation now became perilous. He was followed by _Philip_ at the head of a powerful army; and, had there been more energy and promptitude on the side of the French, the English forces might have been destroyed. _Edward_ was barely able, by taking advantage of a ford at low tide, to cross the Somme, and to take up an advantageous position at _Crécy_. There he was attacked with imprudent haste by the army of the French. The chivalry of France went down before the solid array of English archers, and _Edward_ gained an overwhelming victory. Philip's brother _Charles_, count of Alençon, fell, with numerous other princes and nobles, and thirty thousand soldiers (1346). In the battle, the English king's eldest son --_Edward_, the Black Prince as he was called from the color of his armor--was hard pressed; but the father would send no aid, saying, "Let the boy win his spurs." It was the custom to give the spurs to the full-fledged knight. After a siege, _Calais_, the port so important to the English, was captured by them. The deputies of the citizens, almost starved, came out with cords in their hands, to signify their willingness to be hanged. The French were driven out, and Calais was an English town for more than two centuries. France was defeated on all sides. The Scots, too, were vanquished; and _David Bruce_ was made prisoner (1346). In _Brittany_ the French party was prostrate. A truce between the kings was concluded for ten months. THE "BLACK DEATH."--In the midst of these calamities, the fearful pestilence swept over France, called the "Black Death." It came from Egypt, possibly from farther east. In Florence three-fifths of the inhabitants perished by it. From Italy it passed over to Provence, and thence moved northward to Paris, spreading destruction in its path. It reached England, and there it is thought by some that one-half of the population perished (1348-1349). ENGLISH AND FRENCH ARMIES.--At this time, when the power of France was so reduced, the king acquired _Montpellier_ from _James of Aragon_, and the Dauphiné of _Vienne_ by purchase from the last _Dauphin, Humbert II._, who entered a monastery. _Dauphin_ became the title of the heir of the French crown. It was constantly evident how deep a root the royal power had struck into the soil of France. At times, when the kingdom was almost gone, the kingship survived. But, unhappily, there was no union of orders and classes. Chivalry looked with disdain upon the common people. The poor Genoese archers who had fought with the French at _Crécy_, and whose bow-strings were wet by a shower, were despised by the gentlemen on horseback. In the French armies, there was no effective force but the cavalry, and there was a fatal lack of subordination and discipline. In England, on the contrary, under kings with more control over the feudal aristocracy, and from the combination of lords and common people in resistance to kings, the English armies had acquired union and discipline. The bow in the hands of the English yeoman was a most effective weapon. The English infantry were more than a match for the brave and impetuous cavaliers of France. At _Crécy_ the entire English force fought on foot. Cannon were just beginning to come into use. This brought a new advantage to the foot-soldier. But it seems probable that cannon were employed at _Crécy_. BATTLE OF POITIERS: INSURRECTION IN PARIS.--_Philip_ left his crown to his son, _John_ (II.) of Normandy, called "the Good" (1350-1364); but the epithet (_le Bon_) signifies not the morally worthy, but rather, the prodigal, gay and extravagant. He was a passionate, rash, and cruel king. His relations with _Charles_ "the Bad," king of _Navarre_,--who, however, was the better man of the two,--brought disasters upon France. This _Charles II._ of Navarre (1349-1387) was the grandson, on his mother's side, of _Louis X._ of France. _John_ had withheld from him promised fiefs. Later he had thrown him into prison. _Philip of Navarre_, the brother of _Charles_, helped the English against _John_ in Normandy. Meanwhile the Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) ravaged the provinces near Guienne. The national spirit in France was roused by the peril. The _States General_ granted large supplies of men and money, but only on the condition that the treasure should be dispensed under their superintendence, and that they should be assembled every year. The army of the Black Prince was small, and he advanced so far that he was in imminent danger; but the attack on him at _Poitiers_ (1356), by the vastly superior force of King _John_, was made with so much impetuosity and so little prudence that the French, as at _Crecy_, were completely defeated. Their cavalry charged up a lane, not knowing that the English archers were behind the hedges on either side. Their dead to the number of eleven thousand lay on the field. The king, and with him a large part of the nobility, were taken prisoners. _John_ was taken to England (1357). From the moment of his capture he was treated with the utmost courtesy. The French peasantry, however, suffered greatly; and in France the name of Englishman for centuries afterwards was held in abhorrence. INSURRECTION IN PARIS.--The incapacity of the nobles to save the kingdom called out the energies of the class counted as plebeian,--the middle class between the nobles and serfs. It was not without competent leaders, chief of whom were _Robert le Coq_, bishop of _Laon_, and councilor of Parliament; and _Etienne Marcel_, an able man, provost of the traders, or head of the municipality of Paris. The _States General_ at Paris, at the instigation of such as these, required of the _Dauphin_ the punishment of the principal officers of the king, the release of the King of Navarre, and the establishment of a council made up from the three orders, for the direction of all the important affairs of government. The States General, representing _the South_, at Toulouse voted a levy of men and means without conditions; but the Dauphin _Charles_ was obliged, at the next meeting of the States General of Paris (1357), to yield to these and other additional demands. The king, however, a prisoner in England, at the Dauphin's request refused to ratify the compact. The agitators at Paris set the King of Navarre free, and urged him to assert his right to the throne. _Marcel_ and the Parisian multitude wore the party-colored hood of red and blue, the civic colors of Paris. They killed two of the Dauphin's confidential advisers, the marshals of Champagne and Normandy. A reaction set in against _Marcel_, and in favor of the royal cause. A civil war was the result. REVOLT OF THE JACQUERIE.--At this time, there burst forth an insurrection, called the _Jacquerie_, of the peasants of the provinces,--_Jacques Bonhomme_ being a familiar nickname of the peasantry. It was attended with frightful cruelties: many of the feudal chateaux were destroyed, and all of their inmates killed. The land was given over to anarchy and bloodshed. _Marcel_ made different attempts to effect a combination with _Charles of Navarre_; but the revolutionary leader was assassinated, and the Dauphin _Charles_, having destroyed opposition in _Paris_, made peace with the King of Navarre, who had kept up in the provinces the warfare against him. The movement of _Marcel_, with whatever crimes and errors belonged to it, was "a brave and loyal effort to stem anarchy, and to restore good government." By its failure, the hope of a free parliamentary government in France was dashed in pieces. TREATY OF BRÉTIGNY (1360).--The captive king, _John_, made a treaty with _Edward_, by which he ceded to the English at least one-half of his dominions. The _Dauphin_ assembled the States General, and repudiated the compact. _Edward III._, in 1359, again invaded France with an immense force. But _Charles_ prudently avoided a general engagement, and _Edward_ found it difficult to get food for his troops. He concluded with France, in 1360, the treaty of _Brétigny_, by which the whole province of _Aquitaine_, with several other lordships, was ceded to _Edward_, clear of all feudal obligations. _Edward_, in turn, renounced his claim to the French crown, as well as to _Normandy_, and to all other former possessions of the Plantagenets north of the Loire. The King was to be set at liberty on the payment of the first installment of his ransom. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD II. (TO THE PEACE OF TROYES, 1420). DUCHY OF BURGUNDY.--There was an opportunity to repair a part of these losses. In 1361 the ducal house of _Burgundy_ became extinct, and the fief reverted to the crown. But _John_ gave it to his son, _Philip the Bold_, who became the founder of the Burgundian branch of the house of _Valois_. _Philip_ married the heiress of _Flanders_, and thus founded the power of the house of Burgundy in the Netherlands. DU GUESCLIN: CONTEST IN SPAIN.--The provinces of France were overrun and plundered by soldiers of both parties, under the names of _routiers_ (men of the road) and _great companies_. King _John_ returned to England, because one of his sons, left as a hostage, had fled. There his captivity was made pleasant to him, but he died soon after. _Charles V._, or _Charles the Wise_ (1364-1380), undertook to restore prosperity to the French kingdom. He reformed the coin, the debasement of which was a dire grievance to the burghers. Against the free lances in the service of _Charles of Navarre_, the king sent bands of mercenary soldiers under _Du Guesclin_, a valiant gentleman of Brittany, who became one of the principal heroes of the time. The war lasted for a year, and the King of Navarre made peace. In Brittany, _Du Guesclin_ was taken prisoner by the English party and the adventurers who fought with them. The king secured his release by paying his ransom; and he led the companies into Spain to help the cause of _Henry of Transtamare_, who had a dispute for the throne of _Castile_ with _Peter the Cruel_. The Black Prince supported _Peter_, and, for a time, with success. In 1369 _Henry_ was established on the throne, and with him the French party. The principal benefit of this Spanish contest was the deliverance of France from the companies of freebooters. ADVANTAGES GAINED BY THE FRENCH.--King _Charles_ reformed the internal administration of his kingdom, and at length felt himself ready to begin again the conflict with England. _Edward III._ was old. The Black Prince was ill and gloomy, and his Aquitanian subjects disliked the supercilious ways of the English. _Charles_ declared war (1369). The English landed at _Calais_. But the cities were defended by their strong walls; and the French army, under the _Duke of Burgundy_, in pursuance of the settled policy of the king, refused to meet the enemy in a pitched battle. The next year (1370) they appeared again, and once more, in 1373, both times with the same result. The _Duke of Anjou_ reconquered the larger part of _Aquitaine_. _Du Guesclin_ was made constable of the French army, and thus placed above the nobles by birth. The English fleet was destroyed by the Castilian vessels before _Rochelle_ (1372). _Du Guesclin_ drove the _Duke of Montfort_, who was protected by the English, out of Brittany. In 1375 a truce was made, which continued until the death of Edward III. (1377). Then _Charles_ renewed the war, and was successful on every side. Most of the English possessions in France were won back. The last exploit of the Black Prince had been the sacking of _Limoges_ (1370). After this cruel proceeding, broken in health, he returned to England. STATE OF ENGLAND.--The Black Prince, after his return, when his father was old and feeble, did much to save the country from misrule, so that his death was deplored. The Parliament at this time was called "the Good." It turned out of office friends of _John of Gaunt_,--or of Ghent (the place where he was born),--the third son of Edward. They were unworthy men, whom John had caused to be appointed. At this time occurred the first instance of impeachment of the king's ministers by the Commons. When the Black Prince died, his brother regained the chief power, and his influence was mischievous. During Edward's reign, Flemish weavers were brought over to England, and the manufacture of fine woolen cloths was thus introduced. JOHN WICKLIFFE.--In this reign the English showed a strong disposition to curtail the power of the popes in England. When _Pope Urban V._, in 1366, called for the payment of the arrears of King _John's_ tribute, Parliament refused to grant it, on the ground that no one had the right to subject the kingdom to a foreigner. It was in the reign of _Edward III._ that _John Wickliffe_ became prominent. He took the side of the secular or the parish clergy in their conflict with the mendicant orders,--"the Begging Friars," as they were styled. He also advocated the cause of the king against the demands of the Pope. He contended that the clergy had too much wealth and power. He adopted doctrines, at that time new, which were not behind the later Protestant, or even Puritan, opinions. He translated the Bible into English. He was protected by _Edward III._ and by powerful nobles, and he died in peace in his parish at _Lutterworth_, in 1384; but, after his death, his bones were taken up, and burned. His followers bore the nickname of _Lollards_, which is probably derived from a word that means _to sing_, and thus was equivalent to _psalm-singers_. RICHARD II. (1377-1399): THE PEASANT INSURRECTION: DEPOSITION OF RICHARD.--_Richard_, the young son of the Black Prince, had an unhappy reign. At first he was ruled by his uncles, especially by _John of Gaunt_, Duke of Lancaster. Four years after his accession, a great insurrection of the peasants broke out, from discontent under the yoke of villanage, and the pressure of taxes. The first leader in Essex was a priest, who took the name of _Jack Straw_. In the previous reign, the poor had found reason to complain bitterly of the landlords; but their lot was now even harder. When the insurgents reached _Blackheath_, they numbered a hundred thousand men. There a priest named _John Ball_ harangued them on the equality of rights, from the text,-- When Adam delved, and Eve span, Who was then a gentleman? Young Richard managed them with so much tact, and gave them such fair promises, that they dispersed. One of their most fierce leaders, _Wat Tyler_, whose daughter had been insulted by a tax-gatherer, was stabbed during a parley which he was holding with the king. There was a _Gloucester_ party--a party led by his youngest uncle, the _Duke of Gloucester_--which gave Richard much trouble; but he became strong enough to send the duke to _Calais_, where, it was thought, he was put to death. In 1398 he banished two noblemen who had given him, at a former day, dire offense. One of them was _Thomas Mowbray_, Duke of _Norfolk_; the other was _Henry of Bolingbroke_, Duke of _Hereford_, afterwards called Duke of _Lancaster_, son of John of Gaunt. When John of Gaunt died, Richard seized his lands. In 1399, when _Richard_ was in Ireland, _Bolingbroke_ landed, with a few men-at-arms and with Archbishop _Arundel_; and, being joined by the great family of _Percy_ in the North, he obliged _Richard_ to resign the crown. He was deposed by Parliament for misgovernment. Not long after, he was murdered. _Lancaster_ was made king under the name of _Henry IV._ It was under _Richard_ that the statute of _præmunire_ (of 1353) was renewed, and severe penalties were imposed on all who should procure excommunications or sentences against the king or the realm. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--In the course of the reign of _Edward III._, the French language, which had come in with the Normans, ceased to be the speech of fashion; and the English, as altered by the loss of inflections and by the introduction of foreign words, came into general use. The English ceased to speak the language of those who were now held to be national enemies. In 1362 the use of English was established in the courts of law. The _Old English_ ceased to be written or spoken correctly. The _Latin_ still continued to be familiar to the clergy and to the learned. _William Langland_ wrote a poem entitled the _Vision of Piers Plowman_ (1362). _Pierce the Plowman's Crede_ is a poem by another author. The two principal poets are _Chaucer_ and _Gower_, both of whom wrote the new English in use at the court. Chaucer's great poem, the _Canterbury Tales_, is the latest and most remarkable of his works. HENRY IV. (1399-1413): TWO REBELLIONS: THE LOLLARDS.-By right of birth, the crown would have fallen to _Roger Mortimer_, Earl of March, the grandson of _Lionel_, Duke of Clarence, Lionel having been a son of Edward III., older than John of Gaunt. But there was no law compelling Parliament to give the throne to the nearest of kin. So it fell to the house of Lancaster. Henry had to confront two rebellions. One was that of the _Welsh_, under _Owen Glendower_, which he long tried to put down, and which was gradually overcome by _Henry_, Prince of Wales, the story of whose wild courses in his youth was perhaps exaggerated. The other rebellion was that of the powerful Northumberland family of the _Percys_, undertaken in behalf of _Richard_ if he was alive,--for it was disputed whether or not he had really died,--and if not alive, in behalf of the _Earl of March_. The _Percys_ joined Glendower. They were beaten in a bloody battle near _Shrewsbury_, in 1403, where Northumberland's son "Hotspur" (_Harry Percy_) was slain. While praying at the shrine of St. Edward in Westminster, the king was seized with a fit, and died in the "Jerusalem Chamber" of the Abbot. Under _Henry_ the proceedings against heretics were sharpened; but the Commons at length, from their jealousy of the clergy, sought, although in vain, a mitigation of the statute. In the next reign, the Lollards, who were numerous, had a leader in _Sir John Oldcastle_, called _Lord Cobham_, who once escaped from the Tower, but was captured, after some years, and put to death as a traitor and heretic. Whether he aimed at a Lollard revolution or not, is uncertain. The Lollards were persecuted, not only as heretics, but also as desiring to free the serfs from their bondage to the landlords. THE BURGUNDIANS AND ARMAGNACS.--In the last days of _Charles V._ of France, he tried in vain to absorb _Brittany_. _Flanders_ and _Languedoc_ revolted against him. The aspect of public affairs was clouded when _Charles VI_. (1380-1422), who was not twelve years old, became the successor to the throne. His uncles, the Dukes of _Anjou_, _Berri_, and _Burgundy_, contended for the regency. Their quarrels distracted the kingdom. A contest arose with the Flemish cities under the leadership of _Philip Van Artevelde_; but they were defeated by the French nobles at _Roosebeke_, and _Arterielde_ was slain. This victory of the nobles over the cities was followed by the repression of the municipal leaders and lawyers in France. Two factions sprang up,--the _Burgundians_ and the _Armagnacs_. _Margaret_, the wife of the Duke of Burgundy, received Flanders by inheritance, on the death of her father the Count (1384). The king was beginning to free himself from the control of the factions when he suddenly went mad. Thenceforth there was a struggle in France for supremacy between the adherents of the dukes of _Burgundy_ and the adherents of the house of _Orleans_. The latter came to be called _Armagnacs_ (1410), after the _Count d'Armagnac_, the father-in-law of _Charles, Duke of Orleans_. The strength of the _Burgundians_ was in the _North_ and in the cities. They adhered to _Urban VI._, the pope at Rome, in opposition to the Avignon pope, _Clement VII._; for these were the days of the papal schism. They were also friends of the house of _Lancaster_ in England,--of _Henry IV._ and _Henry V._ The strength of the _Armagnacs_ was in the _South_. At the outset, it was a party of the court and of the nobles: later it became a national party. _Louis, Duke of Orleans_, was treacherously assassinated by a partisan of the Burgundians (1407). This act fomented the strife. BATTLE OF AGINCOURT: TREATY OF TROYES (1420).--It was in 1392 that the king partially lost his reason. For the rest of his life, except at rare intervals, he was either imbecile or frenzied. By the division of counsels and a series of fatalities, gigantic preparations for the invasion of England had come to naught (1386-1388). _Henry V. of England_ (1413-1422) concluded that the best way to divert his nobles from schemes of rebellion was to make war across the Channel. Accordingly he demanded his "inheritance" according to the treaty of _Brétigny_, together with _Normandy_. On the refusal of this demand, he renewed the claim of his greatgrandfather to the crown of France, although he was not the eldest descendant of _Edward III_. _Henry_ invaded France at the head of fifty thousand men. By his artillery and mines he took _Harfleur_, but not until after a terrible siege in which thousands of his troops perished by sickness. On his way towards _Calais_, with not more than nine thousand men, he found his way barred at _Agincourt_ by the Armagnac forces, more than fifty thousand in number, comprising the chivalry of France (1415). In the great battle that ensued, the horses of the French floundered in the mud, and horse and rider were destroyed by the English bowmen. The French suffered another defeat like the defeats of _Crécy_ and _Poitiers_. They lost eleven thousand men, and among them some of the noblest men in France. France was falling to pieces. _Rouen_ was besieged by Henry, and compelled by starvation to surrender (1419). The fury of factions continued to rage. There were dreadful massacres by the mob in Paris. The _Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless_ (_Jean sans Peur_), was murdered in 1419 by the opposite faction. The young Duke _Philip_, and even the Queen of France, _Isabella_, were now found on the Anglo-Burgundian side. By the _Treaty of Troyes_, in 1420, _Catherine_, the daughter of _Charles VI._, was given in marriage to _Henry V._, and he was made the heir of the crown of France when the insane king, _Charles VI._, should die. _Henry_ was made regent of France. The whole country north of the _Loire_ was in his hands. The Dauphin _Charles_ retired to the provinces beyond that river. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR: PERIOD III. (TO THE END, 1463). FRANCE IN 1422.--Both _Henry_ and _Charles VI._ died in 1422. The Duke of Bedford was made regent in France, ruling in the name of his infant nephew (_Henry VI._). _Charles VII._ (1422-1461) was proclaimed king by the _Armagnacs_ south of the Loire. His situation was desperate, but he represented the national cause. _Bedford_ laid siege to _Orleans_, the last bulwark of the royal party. The English were weakened, however, by the withdrawal of the _Duke of Burgundy_ and his forces. JOAN OF ARC.--When the national cause was at this low point, Providence raised up a deliverer in the person of a pure, simple-hearted, and pious maiden of _Domrémy_ in _Lorraine_, seventeen years of age, _Jeanne Dare_ by name (the name _Joan of Arc_ being merely a mistake in orthography). The tales of suffering that she had heard deeply moved her. She felt herself called of Heaven to liberate France. She fancied that angels' voices bade her undertake this holy mission. Her own undoubting faith aroused faith in others. Commissioned by the king, she mounted a horse, and, with a banner in her hand, joined the French soldiers, whom she inspired with fresh courage. They forced the English to give up the siege of Orleans, and to march away. Other defeats of the English followed. The Maid of Orleans took _Charles_ to _Rheims_, and stood by him at his coronation. The English and Burgundians rallied their strength. _Joan of Arc_ was ill supported, and was made prisoner at Compèigne by the Burgundians. They delivered her to the English. She was subjected to grievous indignities, was condemned as a witch, and finally burned as a relapsed heretic at _Rouen_ (1431). The last word she uttered was "Jesus." Her character was without a taint. In her soul, the spirit of religion and of patriotism burned with a pure flame. A heroine and a saint combined, she died "a victim to the ingratitude of her friends, and the brutality of her foes." THE ENGLISH DRIVEN OUT--In 1435 the _Duke of Burgundy_ was reconciled to _Charles VII._, and joined the cause of France. The generals of Charles gained possession of one after another of the provinces. During a truce of two years, _Henry VI._ of England (1422-1461) married _Margaret of Anjou_, the daughter of King _René_. _Henry_ was of a gentle temper, but lacked prudence and vigor. The king of France and the dauphin began the organization of a standing army, which greatly increased the military strength of the country (1439). In 1449 the war with England was renewed. With the defeat of the English, and the death of their commander, _Talbot_, in 1453, the contest of a century came to an end. All that England retained across the Channel was _Calais_ with _Havre_ and _Guines Castle_. France was desolated by all this fruitless strife. Some of the most fertile portions of its territory were reduced to a desert, "given up to wolves, and traversed only by the robber and the free-lance." REBELLION of "JACK CADE."--The peasants in England were now free from serfdom. Under _Henry VI._ occurred a formidable insurrection of the men of Kent, who marched to London led by _John Cade_, who called himself _John Mortimer_. They complained of bad government and extortionate taxes. One main cause of the rising was the successes of the French. The condition of the laboring class had much improved. The insurgents were defeated by the citizens, and their leader was slain. In this reign began the long "Wars of the Roses," or the contest of the houses of _York_ and _Lancaster_ for the throne. MILAN.--THE VISCONTI AND SFORZA. Matteo I, VISCONTI (nephew of Archbishop Otto), Lord of Milan, 1295-1332. | +--Stefano (_d._ 1327). | +--Matteo II,[1] 1354-1355. | +--Bernabo,[1] 1354-1385. | | | +--Catharine, | _m._ (2), | +--GIAN GALEAZZO, 1378-1402 (first duke, 1396). | | | | | +--GIOVANNI MARIA, 1402-1412. | | | | | +--FILIPPO MARIA, 1412-1447. | | | | | | | +--Bianca Maria. | | | _m._ | | | +--FRANCESCO SFORZA, 1450-1466 | | | | | | | | | +--GALEAZZO MARIA, 1466-1476, _m._ | | | | | Bona, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy. | | | | | | | | | | | +--GIAN GALEAZZO, 1476-1494. | | | | | | | | | +--LUDOVICO Il Moro, 1494-1500, 3, (_d._ 1510) | | | | _m._ Beatrice d'Este. | | | | | | | | | +--MASSAMILLANO,[4] 1512-1515 (_d._ 1530) | | | | | | | | | +--FRANCESCO MARIA, [4], 1521-1535. _m._ | | | | Christina, daughter of Christian II of Denmark (1) | | | | | | | Jacopo (Muzio) Attendolo di Cotignola, called Sforza. | | | | | +--Valentina, [2] _m._ | | Louis, Duke of Orleans. | | | | | +--Charles, Duke of Orleans. | | | | | +--LOUIS XII of France, | | Duke of Milan 1500-1512. | | +--Galeazzo II,[1] 1354-1378. 1 The Milanese territory was divided between the three brothers, and united on the death of Bernabo. 2 Hence the French claim to Milan. 3 Louis XII of France took Ludovico prisoner, and held Milan 1500-1512. 4 Puppet dukes. Milan being, in fact, the subject of contention between France and the Hapsburgs. [Abridged from George's Genealogical Tables.] THE THREE NORTHERN KINGDOMS BEFORE THE UNION OF CALMAR. [D. means King of Denmark; N., King of Norway; S., King of Sweden.] HACO IV, N. (_d._ 1263). | +--MAGNUS VI, N., 1263-1281. | +--ERIC II, N., 1281-1299. | +--HACO V, N., 1299-1320. | | MAGNUS I, S., 1279-1290. | | | +--BERGER, S., 1290-1320 (deposed; _d._ 1326) | | _m._ | | +--Martha. | | | | | +--CHRISTOPHER II, D., 1320-1340. | | | | | | | +--WALDEMAR III, D., 1346-1375. | | | | | | | +--Margaret,[2] D. N., 1387, S., 1388 (_d._ 1412). | | | _m._ HACO VI, N. (_d._ 1380) | | | | | | | +--OLAF VI, D. 1376, N. 1380 (_d._ 1387). | | | | | +--ERIC VI, D., 1286-1320. | | | | | ERIC V, D., 1250-1286. | | | +--Eric. | _m._ +--Ingeburga | +--Magnus VII (II), N. S., 1320-1365 (deposed). | +--Euphemia. _m._ Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg, | | | +--Albert,[1] S., 1365-1388 (deposed). | | | +--Henry, m. Ingeburga, daughter of Waldemar III, D. | | | +--Mary, _m._ Wratislas of Pomerania. | | | +--ERIC, D. N. S., 1412-1439 | | (deposed; _d._ 1459). | | | +--Catharine, _m._ John, son of Emperor Robert. | | | +--CHRISTOPHER, D. N. S. (_d._ 1448). | _m._ (1) | Dorothea, daughter of John Alchymista, | Margrave of Brandenburg | _m._ (2) | CHRISTIAN I,[3] D. N. S. | +--HACO VI, N. (_d._ 1380) 1 Elected to Sweden in opposition to Haco VI; deposed by Margaret. 2 Having united all three kingdoms in her own person, framed formal Union of Calmar, 1397. 3 Elected king on death of Christopher, whose widow he married; said to be descended from Eric V of Denmark. [Abridged from George's Genealogical Tables.] CHAPTER II. GERMANY: ITALY: SPAIN: THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: POLAND AND RUSSIA: HUNGARY: OTTOMAN TURKS: THE GREEK EMPIRE. I. GERMANY. THE GREAT INTERREGNUM.--After the death of _Frederick II_. (1250), Germany and Italy, the two countries over which the imperial authority extended, were left free from its control. _Italy_ was abandoned to itself, and thus to internal division. The case of _Germany_ was analogous. During the "great interregnum," lasting for twenty-three years, the German cities, by their industry and trade, grew strong, as did the burghers in France, and in the towns in England, in this period. But in Germany the feudal control was less relaxed. This interval was a period of anarchy and trouble. _William of Holland_ wore the title of emperor until 1256. Then the _electors_ were bribed, and _Alfonso X. of Castile_, great-grandson of Frederick Barbarossa, and _Richard, Earl of Cornwall_, younger son of King John of England, were chosen by the several factions; but their power was nominal. The four electors on the Rhine, and the dukes and counts, divided among themselves the imperial domains. The dismemberment of the duchies of _Swabia_ and _Franconia_ (1268), and at an earlier day (1180) of _Saxony_, created a multitude of petty sovereignties. The great vassals of the empire, the kings of _Denmark_, of _Poland_, of _Hungary_, etc., broke away from its suzerainty. There was a reign of violence. The barons sallied out of their strongholds to rob merchants and travelers. The princes, and the nobles in immediate relation to the empire, governed, each in his own territory, as they pleased. New means of protection were created, as the _League of the Rhine_, comprising sixty cities and the three Rhenish archbishops, and having its own assemblies; and the _Hanseatic League_, which has been described (p. 303). Moreover, corporations of merchants and artisans were established in the cities. In the North, where the Crusades, and war with the _Slaves_, had thinned the population, colonies of Flemings, Hollanders, and Frisians came in to cultivate the soil. During the long-continued disturbances after the death of _Frederick II_., the desire of local independence undermined monarchy. The empire never regained the vigor of which it was robbed by the _interregnum_. HOUSE OF HAPSBURG.--_Rudolph_, Count of Hapsburg (1273-1291), was elected emperor for the reason, that, while he was a brave man, he was not powerful enough to be feared by the aristocracy. He wisely made no attempt to govern in Italy. He was supported by the Church, to which he was submissive. He devoted himself to the task of putting down disorders in Germany. Against _Ottocar II_., king of Bohemia, who now held also Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and who refused to acknowledge Rudolph, the emperor twice made war successfully. In a fierce battle at the _Marchfield_, in 1278, _Ottocar_ was slain. _Austria_, _Styria_, and _Carniola_ fell into the hands of the emperor. They were given as fiefs to Rudolph's son _Albert_; and _Carinthia_ to Albert's son-in-law, the _Count of Tyrol_. This was the foundation of the power of the house of Hapsburg. _Rudolph_ strove with partial success to recover the crown lands, and did what he could to put a stop to private war and to robbery. Numerous strongholds of robbers he razed to the ground. His practical abandonment of Italy, his partial restoration of order in Germany, and his service to the house of Hapsburg, are the principal features of Rudolph's reign. HENRY VII. (1308-1313): ITALY.--Adolphus of Nassau (1292-1298) was hired by _Edward I_. to declare war against France. His doings in Thuringia. which he tried to buy from the Landgrave _Albert_, led the electors to dethrone him, and to choose _Albert I_. (1298-1308), _Duke of Austria_, son of Rudolph. His nephew _John_, whom he tried to keep out of his inheritance, murdered him. _Henry VII_. (1308-1313), who was Count of _Luxemburg_, the next emperor, did little more than build up his family by marrying his son _John_ to the granddaughter of King _Ottocar_. _John_ was thus made king of Bohemia. In these times, when the emperors were weak, they were anxious to strengthen and enrich their own houses. _Henry_ went to Italy to try his fortunes beyond the Alps. He was crowned in Pavia king of Italy, and in Rome emperor (1312). But the rival parties quickly rose up against him: he was excommunicated by _Clement V_., an ally of France, and died--it was charged, by poison mixed in the sacramental cup--in 1313. He was a man of pure and noble character, but the time had passed for Italy to be governed by a German sovereign. CIVIL WAR: ELECTORS AT RENSE.--One party of the electors chose _Frederick of Austria_ (1314-1330), and the other _Louis of Bavaria_ (1314-1347). A terrible civil war, lasting for ten years, was the consequence. In a great battle near _Mühldorf_, the Austrians were defeated, and _Frederick_ was captured. _Louis_ had now to encounter the hostility of Pope _John XXII_. (at Avignon), who wished to give the imperial crown to _Philip the Fair_ of France. _Louis_ maintained that he received the throne, not from the popes, but from the electors. He was excommunicated by _John_, who refused to sanction the agreement of Louis and of Frederick, now set at liberty, to exercise a joint sovereignty. _Louis_ was in Italy from 1327 to 1330, where he was crowned emperor by a pope of his own creation. All efforts of Louis to make peace with _Pope_ _John_ and his successor, _Benedict XII_., were foiled by the opposition of France. The strife which had been occasioned in Germany by this interference from abroad created such disaffection among the Germans, that the electors met at _Rense_, in 1338, and declared that the elected king of the Germans received his authority from the choice of the electoral princes exclusively, and was Roman emperor even without being crowned by a pope. DEPOSITION OF LOUIS OF BAVARIA.--The imprudence of _Louis_ in aggrandizing his family, and his assumption of an acknowledged papal right in dissolving the marriage of the heiress of Tyrol with a son of _King John of Bohemia_, turned the electors against him. In 1346 Pope _Clement VI_. declared him deposed. The electors chose in his place _Charles_, the Margrave of _Moravia_, the son of King _John of Bohemia_. _Louis_ did not give up his title, but he died soon after. CHARLES IV. (1347-1378).--_Charles IV_. visited Italy, and was crowned emperor (1355); but, according to a promise made to the Pope, he tarried in Rome only a part of one day. He was crowned king of Burgundy at _Arles_ (1365). In Italy "he sold what was left of the rights of the empire, sometimes to cities, sometimes to tyrants." His principal care was for building up his own hereditary dominion, which he so enlarged that it extended, at his death, from the Baltic almost to the Danube. He fortified and adorned _Prague_, and established there, in 1348, the first German university. THE GOLDEN BULL.--The great service of _Charles IV_. to Germany was in the grant of the charter called the _Golden Bull_ (1356). This expressly conferred the right of electing the emperor on the SEVEN ELECTORS, who had, in fact, long exercised it. These were the archbishops of Mentz, of Trier, and of Cologne, and the four secular princes, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. The electoral states were made indivisible and inalienable, and hereditary in the male line. The electors were to be sovereign within their respective territories, and their persons were declared sacred. THE BLACK DEATH.--Germany, like the other countries, was terribly afflicted during the reign of Charles by the destructive pestilence that swept over the most of Europe (p. 319). One effect was an outbreaking of religious fervor. At this time the movement of the "Flagellants," which started in the thirteenth century, reached its height in Germany and elsewhere. They scourged and lacerated themselves for their sins, marching in processions, and inflicting their blows to the sound of music. Another result of the plague was a savage persecution of the Jews, who were falsely suspected of poisoning wells. Many thousands of them were tortured and killed. ANARCHY IN GERMANY.--The son of Charles IV. (1378-1400), _Wenceslaus_, or _Wenzel_, was a coarse and cruel king. Under him the old disorders of the _Interregnum_ sprang up anew. The towns had to defend themselves against the robber barons, and formed confederacies for this purpose. Private war raged all over Germany. ACCESSION OF SIGISMUND.--_Wenceslaus_ was deposed by the electors in 1400. But _Rupert_, the Count Palatine, his successor (1400-1410), was able to accomplish little, in consequence of the strife of parties. _Sigismund_ (1410-1437), brother of _Wenceslaus_, margrave of Brandenburg, and, in right of his wife, king of Hungary, was chosen emperor, first by a part, and then by all, of the electors. The most important events of this period were the _Council of Constance_ (1414-1418) and the war with the _Hussites_. JOHN HUSS.--The principal end for which the Council of Constance was called was the healing of the schism in the Church,--in consequence of which there were three rival popes,--and the securing of ecclesiastical reforms. But at this council _John Huss_, an eminent Bohemian preacher, was tried for heresy. The doctrines of _Wickliffe_ had penetrated into _Bohemia;_ and a strong party, of which Huss was the principal leader, had sprung up in favor of innovations, doctrinal and practical, one of which was the giving of the cup in the sacrament to the laity. _Huss_ made a great stir by his attack upon abuses in the Church. Under a safe-conduct from _Sigismund_, he journeyed to _Constance_. There he was tried, condemned as a heretic, and burnt at the stake (1415). _Jerome of Prague_, another reformer, was dealt with in the same way by the council (1416). HUSSITE WAR.--The indignation of the followers of _Huss_ was such that a great revolt broke out in Bohemia. The leader was a brave man, _Ziska_. The imperial troops, after the coronation of _Sigismund_ as king of Bohemia, were defeated, and driven out. The Hussite soldiers ravaged the neighboring countries. The council of _Basel_ (1431-1449) concluded a treaty with the more moderate portion of the Hussites, in which concessions were made to them. The _Taborites_, the more fanatical portion, were at length defeated and crushed. SWITZERLAND.--Switzerland, originally a part of the kingdom of _Arles_, had been ceded, with this kingdom, to the German Empire in 1033. Within it, was established a lay and ecclesiastical feudalism. In the twelfth century the cities--_Zürich_, _Basel_, _Berne_, and _Freiburg_--began to be centers of trade, and gained municipal privileges. The three mountain cantons--_Uri_, _Schweitz,_ and _Unterwalden_--cherished the spirit of freedom. The counts of _Hapsburg_, after the beginning of the thirteenth century, exercised a certain indefinite jurisdiction in the land. They endeavored to transform this into an actual sovereignty. Two of the cantons received charters placing them in an immediate relation to the empire. After the death of _Rudolph I_., the three cantons above named united in a league. Out of this the _Swiss Confederacy_ gradually grew up. There were struggles to cast off foreign control; but the story of _William Tell_, and other legends of the sort, are certainly fabulous. _Albert of Austria_ left to his successor in the duchy the task of subduing the rebellion. The Austrians were completely defeated at _Morgarten_, "the Marathon of Switzerland" (1315). The Swiss Confederacy was enlarged by the addition of _Lucerne_ (1332), _Zürich_ and _Glarus_ (1351), _Zug_ (1352), and of the city of _Berne_ in 1353. The battle of _Sempach_ (1386) brought another great defeat upon the Austrians. There, if we may believe an ancient song, a Swiss hero, _Arnold of Winkelried_, grasped as many of the spear-points as he could reach, as a sheaf in his arms, and devoted himself to death, opening thus a path in which his followers rushed to victory. Once more the Swiss triumphed at _Näfels_ (1388). From that time they were left to the enjoyment of their freedom. II. ITALY. GUELFS AND GHIBELLINES: FREEDOM IN THE CITIES.--The inveterate foes of Italy were foreign interference and domestic faction. After the death of _Frederick II_., the war of the popes against his successors lasted for seventeen years. After the defeat of _Manfred_ (1266), _Conradin_, the last of the Hohenstaufens, died on the scaffold at Naples. _Charles of Anjou_ lost Sicily through the rebellion of the Sicilian Vespers (1282); and dominion in that island, separated from Naples, passed to the house of Aragon. The papal states, after the election of _Rudolph_ of _Hapsburg_, became a distinct sovereignty of the pontiffs. The bitter strife of the _Guelfs_ and _Ghibellines_ went on in the Italian cities. The Genoese, who were Guelfic, defeated the Pisans in 1284; and "_Pisa_, which had ruined Amalfi, was now ruined by _Genoa_." _Florence_, which was Guelfic, grew in strength. _Genoa_ and _Venice_ became rivals in the contest for the control of the Mediterranean. In _Florence_, new factions, the _Neri_ and _Bianchi_ (Blacks and Whites), appeared; the _Neri_ being violent Guelfs, and the _Bianchi_ being at first moderate Guelfs and then Ghibellines. Pope _Boniface VIII_. invited into Italy _Charles of Valois_. He was admitted to Florence (1301), and gave the supremacy there to the Guelfic side. The coming of the Emperor _Henry VII_. into Italy (1310) was marked by a temporary, but the last, revival of imperial feeling. The connection of the popes with the French houses of _Anjou_ and _Valois_ led to the "Babylonian Exile" at _Avignon_, during which Italy was comparatively free, both from imperial and papal control. During the period of the civil wars, while there was nominally a conflict between the party of the pope and the party of the emperor, the _Guelfs_ were devoted to the destruction of feudalism, and to the building-up of commerce and republican institutions; while the _Ghibellines_, dreading anarchy, resisted the incoming of the new order of things. It was in this period that _Dante_ produced his immortal poem, which sprang out of the midst of the contest of Guelf and Ghibelline (p. 307). Dante was himself a Ghibelline and an imperialist. In the course of these conflicts, the plebeian class, before without power, is advanced. Older families of nobility die out, or are reduced in influence. New families rise to prominence and power. The burghers band together in arts or guilds; and out of these, in their corporate character, the governments of the cities are formed. "Ancients," and "priors," the heads of the "arts," supersede the consuls. The "podesta" is more and more limited to a judicial function. In some of the _Guelf_ cities, there is "a gonfalonier of justice," to curb the nobility. In _Florence_, there were also twenty subordinate _gonfaloniers_. The final triumph of Guelfs and of republicanism in Florence was in 1253. The body of the citizens established their sovereignty. When, in 1266, citizenship was confined to those who were enrolled in the guilds, the nobles, or _Grandi_, were wholly excluded from the government. This led them to drop their titles and dignities in order to enroll themselves in these industrial societies. The feuds of factions, especially of the "Whites" and "Blacks," sprang up next. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, strife arose between the "Lesser Arts," or craftsmen whose trades were subordinate to the "Greater Arts," and these last. The mob in Florence drove the "Signory," or chief magistrates, out of the public palace. This was the "Tumult of the Ciompi,"--_Ciompi_ signifying wool-carders, who gave their name to the whole faction. Afterwards, of their own accord, they gave back the government to the priors of the Greater Arts. The effect of these disturbances was to reduce all classes to a level. The way was open for families, like the _Albizzi_ and _Medici_, to build up a virtual control by wealth and personal qualities. THE GENERALS IN THE CITIES.--In the cities, there were "captains of the people," who carried on war,--leaders of the Guelfs or Ghibellines, as either might be uppermost. They were persons who were skilled in arms: these were often nobles who had been merged in the body of citizens. In this way, there arose in the cities of Northern Italy ruling houses or dynasties; as the _Della Scala_ in Verona, the _Polenta_ at Ravenna, etc. In _Tuscany_, where the commercial power of _Florence_ was so great, the communes as yet kept themselves free from hereditary rulers; yet, from time to time, their liberties were exposed to attack from successful generals. THE TYRANTS.--At the beginning of the fourteenth century, as the fury of the civil wars declined, the cities were left more and more under the rule of masters called "tyrants." Tyranny, as of old, was a term for absolute authority, however it might be wielded. The visits of the emperors _Henry VII_., and _Louis IV_. of Bavaria, and of _John_ of Bohemia, son of Henry VII., had no important political effect, except to bring increased power to the Ghibelline despots. Thus, after the interference of Louis IV. (1327), the _Visconti_ established their power in Milan. But the changes in Italy after this epoch gave to the Ghibellines no permanent advantage over their adversaries. The leader of the Guelfs for a long time was _Robert_, king of Naples (1309-1343). THE CLASSES OF DESPOTS.--The methods by which the Emperor _Frederic II_. governed in Italy, and which he had partly learned from the Saracens in Sicily, furnished an example which the Italian despots followed later. He was imitated in his system of taxation, in his creation of monopolies, in the luxury and magnificence of his court, and in his patronage of polite culture. His vicar in the North of Italy, _Ezzelino da Romano_ (1194-1259), who was captain, in the Ghibelline interest, in _Verona_, _Padua_, and other cities, was guilty of massacres and all sorts of cruelties, the story of which exercised a horrible fascination over others who came after. At last he was 'hunted down' by Venice and a league of cities, and captured; but he refused to take food, tore his bandages from his wounds, and died under the ban of the Church. The despots of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have been divided by _Mr. Symonds_ into six classes. The _first_ class had a certain hereditary right from the previous exercise of lordship, as the house of _Este_ in Ferrara. The _second_ class, as the _Visconti_ family in Milan, had been vicars of the empire. The _third_ class were captains, or podestas, chosen by the burghers to their office, but abusing it to enslave the cities. Most of the tyrants of Lombardy got their power in this way. The _fourth_ class is made up of the _Condottieri_, like _Francesco Sforza_ at Milan. The _fifth_ class includes the nephews or